Iron Woman
by Spidershadow5
Summary: Injured in the crossfire of a conflict, a weapons designer learns of the true results of her efforts. Determined to fight back, she develops her greatest invention to take back her legacy. Based on Iron Man 2008. First installment of the Marvelous Smashing Universe.
1. Chapter 1: Shock and Awe

**Welcome to my new series. I present my Super Smash Bros. adaptation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I was heavily inspired by gamer4's work with his Mario Mario series, based off of Harry Potter. I highly encourage you to check out Mario Mario and the Hylian Stone, Dungeon of Secrets, Prisoner of Subspace, and Bottle of Lightning, he's a great writer and his work is awesome (Notice how subtly I slipped in that plug). By the way, I asked, and he does not mind me doing this, just so you know. I'm not sure how far I'll go with this series, but I'd like to do up until the Infinity War (after it comes out, that is). Who knows. Be aware that some plot points may be changed based on my personal opinions, and new scenes may be added.**

 **Also, this series will be mostly a side project, at least for a while, so don't expect updates too often. As always, read, review, and enjoy.**

* * *

 **Iron Women**

Chapter 1: Shock and Awe

 **Zebes Desert**

The deserts of Zebes were not welcoming vacation spots. Populated by strange, birdlike humanoids, called the Chozo, the entire country was one of the most unusual on the planet. Possessing many barren areas of sand, it baffled many as to how the Chozo managed to live so comfortably. The inner caves possessed most of the country's wildlife, and rumors abounded of a self-sustaining ecosystem underground. Of course, nobody believed it.

However, the harsh heat and sand of the deserts were not the things that made the country uninviting. Rather, the groups of terrorists who attempted to seize control through extremely violent, and occasionally downright dirty, tactics were the tourist deterrents. They kept cities on their toes, and kept the United States, one of the most powerful countries on Earth, busy dealing with them. Their military forces were currently up to their heads in enemies, who were smart as well as ruthless. At the current moment, a convoy of America's large, armored vehicles was traveling down the road, with no life in sight of any of the drivers.

In the midst of the convoy lay one particular humvee, which held a passenger of great importance. Besides the usual three American soldiers, dressed in bulky grey armor, with the blue visors of their helmets raised, sat a woman in a black sharp suit, a glass of whiskey in her hand. Her long blond hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she wore dark sunglasses on her face, because where else would you were sunglasses. This particular woman was named Samus Aran, and she was on her way back to the airbase.

Glancing around at the Marines in the vehicle, Samus decided to break the ice, "So, am I being taken to a mob execution? Is that why nobody's talking? Where's the snuff film camera?"

Bye-bye, awkward silence.

All of the soldiers, who up till this point had been the role model of professionalism, broke down laughing, though not enough to throw off the driver. Speaking of her, she eventually responded with, "Sorry, m'am. You're more intimidating in person."

Samus cracked another grin. "Me? The one who designed all of the guns on this convoy? Don't be silly!" she chuckled, "But seriously, ask me anything."

The shotgun seated soldiers decided to speak up first, "Is it true you hooked up with all the dudes in last year's New Zealand Male Firefighters Calendar?"

Samus snorted. "I really have to find out who keeps leaking those rumors. To tell the truth, that is indeed false. I think I saw March at my party once, but that's it."

The one seated besides her piped up next. "Can I take a selfie with you? If I don't, nobody at the bar will ever believe this happened."

"Yes, on two conditions," said Samus, as the Marine pulled out his cell phone, "One, don't call it a selfie. Two, if this ends up on Twitter..."

"Don't worry about it," chimed in the driver, "His twitter consists of bad puns that make everybody sick."

"Hey! You promised never to tell about that!" exclaimed the first, as he held up his phone, making the peace sign next to Samus with his other hand.

"Cool it with the gang sign," snapped Samus. His hand immediately went down, as he frowned in disappointment. "No, actually, put it up. I love peace. Peace is awesome. Peace is why I make things to blow up."

"Alright, let's see...oh, the stupid thing's on the wrong camera," grunted the soldier.

And that was when the car in front of them exploded.

* * *

Dust and metal debris rained down on the humvee's windshield. The driver roared with frustration as she frantically tried to avoid what was left of the destroyed vehicle. Samus was thrown back in her seat, her glass shattering on the floor, followed by her shades. Eventually, the humvee pulled to a stop on the side of the sandy road, as sounds of gunfire rained around the outside. The driver lowered her visor, seized her rifle, and threw open the driver-side door, eyes darting around in search of their assailants. Her efforts were in vain, as another round of bullets struck her down.

"Dammit!" shouted the passenger seated soldier, "Reevs! Guard Aran!" He climbed out, ducking low behind the humvee to avoid sight, then put his rifle on the hood to steady it. Getting a target in his sights, he fired, but was shortly cut down by another shot, followed by several more that cracked the tempered glass shield.

"Mother-!" roared Reevs, as he grabbed his own rifle. He turned towards Samus, yelling "Stay here and get down!" over her protests and demands of an extra weapon. He had barely exited the vehicle before he was hit by another shot. Bullets whizzed past his body, punching multiple holes in the vehicle, though none of them hit Samus. Thinking fast, she immediately dived down to the floor of the humvee.

As the sounds of gunfire rained around, Samus looked up through the cracked windshield, noticing that many of the other soldiers in the convoy were meeting the same fate. Deciding she couldn't risk it, Samus shoved the door open, and jumped out of the vehicle. She was greeted by a small bomb landing several meters away, though not close enough to be a threat, and the sound of the explosion deafened her.

Thanking whatever god or gods existed, Samus dashed away, as more sounds of weapons echoed around her. Diving behind a rock, Samus frantically pulled out her phone, attempted to punch in a number with trembling fingers, when she heard a whooshing noise followed by a thump in the sand next to her. Looking over, she saw a small missile embedded in the ground, with the words "Aran International" clearly printed on the side. Samus shouted in pure fear as she scrambled to her feet and attempted to get back.

Then the bomb exploded.

Samus was thrown backwards several feet, landing with on her rear with a painful crack. Besides the ringing in her ears, Samus felt almost completely numb. However, she soon became aware of a sharp, stinging pain in her torso, and looked down to notice several patches of blood spreading slowly across her shirt. Using the last of her strength, Samus tore it open to get a view at the bullet proof vest she wore, and noticed the blood was seeping through it.

"Shrapnel..." she woozily guessed, before the pain sent her into unconsciousness.

* * *

There first thing she was aware of was darkness. On her face, she could feel the rough fabric of whatever it was that covered her face. Samus guessed it was burlap. Then her nerve endings kicked in and she felt stings from several cuts spread across her face.

Suddenly, the bag was yanked off her head, and a bright light momentarily blinded the woman, forcing her to shut her eyes. When she opened them again, she noticed that she was tied to a chair, sitting in a cave of some kind. Around her stood several...well, Samus wasn't quite sure what they were. They dressed in militaristic body armor, but their necks jutted out straight forward between their shoulders. Their exposed skin was covered in purple scales, and they had sharp yellow teeth. Most carried very large rifles, while two stood in front of her, shining a spotlight and pointing a movie camera at her. Looking up, she noticed that one held a piece of paper, and appeared to be reading out loud. She could not understand the words, as the language of the creature sounded like nothing more than growls.

Given the present circumstances, Samus decided that only one response was appropriate. "Shit."

* * *

 **And that's chapter one. I have a couple of things I'd like to clear up. First, I mean no disrespect to anyone of my readers native to Afghanistan, or anybody who has family or friends who fought in the war. I have no intention of making light of the war. The description is not intended to be accurate to real life. It is based on Planet Zebes from Metroid.**

 **Also, if you need an idea of what the soldiers at the end look like, just look at the Space Pirates in Metroid Prime. That's all.**


	2. Chapter 2: The Horsewoman of War

**And here we have the next Chapter. I wonder how long I can keep cranking these out so fast.**

 **First, I'd like to touch on something I neglected to mention before, namely character submissions. I have characters selected for a lot of the major roles, but I am open to suggestions, so please feel free to bring up any ideas in the comments. On with the show!**

* * *

Chapter 2: The Horsewoman of War

 **Las Vegas, 41.3 hours before the last chapter, SR388 awards ceremony, Wario's Casino**

"Tony Stark is clearly a genius, as well as one of the finest minds of our time. However, nobody really cares, because he's a jerk. Instead, we are here to pay tribute to our country's greatest ally, Samus Aran."

On the projector screen, a picture of Samus, covering the New York times, appeared, looking smart and sharp, as in real life. "Born to the famed World War II weapons designer Rodney Aran, much was expected of Samus at a young age. However, she quickly met and surpassed all hopes of her father," said the narrator. Samus was shown as a child, constructing an intricate machine, as Rodney observed. "Her first achievement was the construction of her own hard drive at the tender age of seven, and she only continued to grow in skill and knowledge. Samus' future was secure at her flawless graduation from M.I.T., with a double major in physics and robotic engineering."

"Unfortunately, tragedy struck without warning, leaving Samus orphaned and Aran International without a leader." A newspaper article was shown detailing the deaths of Samus' parents, Rodney and Virginia, due to a car accident. "With the company's need for guidance, Rodney Aran's business partner and best friend Ivo Robotnik took hold, continuing to direct and improve Aran International." Here, Robotnik himself was shown covering various magazines, while the real Robotnik sat quietly in the audience.

"However, at twenty-one years of age, Samus Aran returned to her company, taking the reins and proving her capabilities as CEO. Working to improve the United States' military defense, Samus has been the figurehead behind the greatest developments of our time. Thermal imaging targeting, orbital defense satellites, and many others have ushered in a new era in the weapons industry. Samus Aran has proven time and time again that she is a genius, a hero, and a true patriot."

The screen faded to black, as the large crowd of assembled viewers applauded, including Robotnik, who frowned, although only slightly. At the microphone stood Anthony Higgs, a tall, muscular black man with a thin layer of black hair atop his skull. He served as a lieutenant in the American Air Force.

"You know, they can say that stuff until the cows come home, but it really doesn't do Miss Aran justice. In my time serving as the liaison to Aran International, I can personally attest to her devotion to the protection of the United States, it's people, and it's allies. As such, it's only fitting that this year's SR388 award goes to Miss Samus Aran!"

The room erupted into applause once more, as everybody waited for the women in question to step up and receive her honor. They waited...and waited...and waited some more, until everyone, Anthony in particular, looked visibly uncomfortable. He had hoped the awkwardness would end with the annoyingly long location blurb at the beginning of this chapter. Deciding to break that, Robotnik climbed up to the podium himself, where Anthony handed him the award, mostly out of desperation.

Now, Robotnik was a particularly odd man to look at. He dressed in an ordinary suit, but he had a round, egg-shaped body, thin limbs, a hooked nose, a mustache that stretched to his ears, and a shaven skull. It was common for Samus to refer to him as Eggman, something which never failed to get on his nerves.

"Thank you, thank you," said Ivo, trying to eliminate the awkward mood in the room, but not entirely succeeding, "Surprisingly, I'm not Samus Aran." Here, he paused until the laughter died down. "But if I were, I know what I would say, and she would agree. She would be honored to receive this award, and humbled as well. She would insist that she is merely doing her civic duty to the world and it's people. I can personally assure you, that if Sammy isn't here, she has a reason. And that reason would be her work."

* * *

 **Meanwhile, in the lobby**

"Are you crazy, lady?! The whole pot?!"

Samus smirked as she took another shot. Her personal chauffeur/bodyguard, a buff woman named Telma, made no change of expression at her boss's actions. After all, this was hardly a first for her employer.

"The whole," said Samus again, "Who wants to walk out of here with any money less than that?"

The man who had asked the question looked at his cards, groaned, and tossed them down on the table with a grunt of "Fold." Two of the remaining players quickly followed suit. It was down to Samus, and a large Japanese man on the opposite end of the table, with a name tag that read "Sakurai*."

He grinned as he dropped his cards. "Four queens," he noted with a smug grin.

Before Samus could respond, she was met with a tap on her shoulder. She turned around to see Anthony looking down at her. "Really?" was all he could say.

"Hey, Tony, you made it!" said Samus, happily, "Wanna join in? It's a little late, but I could probably raid that guy's wallet for some extra cash!" Sakurai snapped something that cannot be printed here back at her.

"You know, you missed your award," said Anthony, folding his arms.

"Award? What award?" asked Samus, innocently. Anthony held up the SR388 award, and Samus snatched it out of his grip. "There, was that so hard?"

Anthony was tempted to both laugh, and slap Samus across the face.

"Oh, and buddy?" Samus continued, turning to Sakurai. She showed her cards. "Straight flush. I win." She pulled in all the chips, laughing at Sakurai's face.

Deciding that she had won enough for the night, Samus got up and left, with Telma and Anthony following. As she approached the entrance, Samus tossed the SR388 award to one of the employees, dressed up as the Casino's mascot and namesake, Wario. Anthony left, after securing a promise from Samus not to miss the demonstration in Zebes the next day. Chances were she wouldn't keep it, but it made him feel better anyway.

Walking up to her limo, Telma held the door open for Samus. She was about to get in, when a call of "Miss Aran!" sounded across the parking lot. Turning around, Samus was approached by a bizarre looking man, even more so than Robotnik. He had a tall, thin build, thick glasses, and a nearly shaven head, with the only remaining hair resembling the bristles of a toothbrush. He eyes were massive, and his five-o'clock shadow was so prominent, his skin looked grey.

"Spark Brushel,** for the news. Interview?" he asked eagerly, smiling wide enough to engulf a watermelon.

Samus looked at Telma, who shrugged. "Uh...sure, why not?" she said.

"AH!" exclaimed Brushel, startling Samus, "I've got it! 'Weapons designer jumps at approaching journalist!' End quote!" He proceeded to write on his arm with a sharpie. Samus just stared. After all, how would you react?

"Right, sorry," Brushel continued, "Moving on. Now, among the population at large, you have been called the modern equivalent of Albert Einstein. What's your stance on that?"

Samus scratched her head, pretending to be deep in thought. "Well, I'll never be able to match that mustache."

Brushel nodded, scribbling more and more on his arm. "How do you respond to accusations that you are the Horsema-I mean, Horsewoman of War?"

Samus considered it. "Well, I kinda like that title." Noticing Brushel writing on his arm more, she continued, "I can see the headline now: 'Famous weapons designer has no problem with the limitless deaths.' Let me tell you something. If weapons were unnecessary, I would be building nothing but robots that make shoes for orphans. Unfortunately, that ain't the case."

Brushel seemed too stunned to answer for a moment. "But...uh...shouldn't there be a better path to peace than blowing things up?" he stammered.

"Ever heard of the speak softly, carry a big stick policy?" asked Samus, grinning as Brushel started to sweat, "Most people considered Einstein a hero for helping to invent the bomb. You know who was also part of that? Dad. Besides, all that money the military throws at us? It goes into all our humanitarian projects, which I see you haven't mentioned." In reality, she couldn't see his arm, but this guy wasn't smart enough to know that.

Brushel began frantically scratching his head with a toothbrush. "D-do you...rehearse that?" he stuttered.

Samus laughed sadistically as she climbed into the back seat. "Don't have to," she responded.

* * *

 **Malibu, California, the Next Day**

Samus' house was a probably the most expensive one in the area. And considering it was in California, that's saying something. It stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean, sticking out as a massive white circular shape. Several smaller buildings were attached to the main body of the house, holding necessities such as the giant swimming pool, and the storehouse where Samus kept her collection of classic movies.

Inside the house, Samus' personal assistant, Olimar Pik, was busy working. Olimar was a short man, with a large, round nose, and a head that was arguably shaped like a melon. At the moment, he was currently working on multiple, vital business deals for Samus, such as buying all the Picassos she could get her hands on. Or, rather, he was trying to, over the Led Zeppelin that was currently reverberating at full blast throughout the entire building.

"Jerry, I'll call you back!" he shouted into his phone over the music, "Adam! Where is she?!"

"In the workshop," replied the robotic voice from the ceiling. Now, Adam, or A.D.A.M., an acronym for A Disciplined, Awesome Machine, was considered by some to be Samus' greatest creation. Her personal A.I., Adam was responsible for maintaining all operations in Samus' house, as well as some functions at the main production building downtown.

The woman in question was, as previously stated, currently in her workshop, working on one of her prized classic cars. Samus always had a thing for older cars, and spent hours restoring them, occasionally redoing the entire bodywork for no reason other than that she could.

"Lady," said Adam, "Mr. Pik is currently attempting to reach you again."

"Crank it up louder," said Samus, not even bothering to look up from her work. Olimar came down the stairs, with his hands over his ears to keep himself from going deaf. He keyed in the pass code to the entry door with his elbows. "Please don't turn down my music."

Olimar disobeyed by immediately shutting it off. He could get away with those kinds of things all the time. After all, Samus would never be able to replace him. Everybody else would go nuts within the first few weeks. "Your private jet was supposed to leave almost three hours ago," he said.

Samus stuck her head out from the hood of the car, removing her goggles. "Wait, did I miss the point of a private jet?" she asked, feigning innocence, "I thought it departed at my beck and call."

Olimar made no visible reaction. This was just another one of Samus' habits: never showing up on time. "You really need to get there," Olimar repeated, "Oh, and you need to sign this." He held out one of the endless contracts.

Samus lazily signed with one hand. "You think if I paid Anthony enough, he would just do it for me?" she asked, "Seriously, they don't even appreciate my presence."

Olimar resisted the urge to point out that he could probably count the people who genuinely enjoyed Samus' company on one hand. Instead, he merely threw her keys to her outstretched hand. "If you don't hurry up, I think Anthony might try to convince them to test your new doohickey on you," he bluntly stated.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" Samus laughed, "If you're going to throw a party that destroys the house while I'm gone, don't bother. That's my job."

"It's my birthday," said Olimar, "And not everyone throws huge parties that end with everybody in their underwear, soaking in beer."

"Wow. What a miserable existence," said Samus, with a smug grin.

* * *

 **Airport**

The good news was that the takeoff sight was actually not very far from Samus' house. Samus drove herself, while Telma pulled behind with her luggage. This led to another round of Samus' favorite game, "Can I Lose My Chauffeur on the Way?" Naturally, she usually succeeded, but today, Telma pulled in about a minute after she did. On jet's ramp, Anthony stood in full uniform, not looking particularly happy.

"Hey, Tony!" called Samus, as she approached the jet, "Only three and a half hours this time!"

"Yeah," mumbled Anthony, "A new record."

The silence that followed most of the flight was clearly hostile. "Come on, man, I said I was sorry!" Samus whined, as she ordered whiskey.

"I told you before, I ain't made, Princess," replied Anthony, as he read the newspaper.

"I told you not to call me Princess."

"Why not? You're physically incapable of being responsible, unless you have someone waiting on your hand and foot. Therefore, you are a princess."

"Oh, please," said Samus. She turned to the flight attendant, "Can you believe this guy? I said I was sorry, and he's all passive aggressive. Oh, by the way, make that two whiskeys."

"No, I don't want any," insisted Anthony, though that proved to be futile, "Look, I'm not mad, I'm used to being one of your many caretakers by now."

"Good," said Samus, with another smirk, "Come on, just take a drink. We're having fun."

"We ain't having fun, we're supposed to be working."

"You have to stand in the middle of the desert in that stuffy uniform all day. Let loose. Please?" Samus pleaded, pulling out the puppy dog eyes.

"Fine," Anthony conceded, taking his drink, "But I'm not drinking enough to get tipsy."

Of course, that declaration didn't last. The flight continued with both on the couch, Anthony ranting about the awesomeness of the United States' military and it's team spirit, Samus just sorta listening, while she simultaneously tried to convince the flight attendants (of both genders) to reenact scenes from Magic Mike. We're going to skip that part to spare our readers from embarrassment.

* * *

 **Olympus Air Base, Zebes**

Landing in the base set in middle of the desert, Samus was greeted by one of the largest deployments she'd ever seen. Sure, Samus had demonstrated new weapons and devices to military personnel before, but this time they'd pulled out all the stops. The entire base was crowded with high ranking officials, including the famed Admiral Dane himself. The most likely reason for this was how much she had promoted the event for months, and they were probably full to the brim with anticipation. Samus smiled. Well, if they wanted a show, who was she to disappoint?

After a brief discussion, they moved to a completely empty site for the test. Taking a position in front of the crowd, Samus made sure that the mountains were behind her. They would come in handy for this. Taking a breath, she began.

"War," she started, "A terrible plague that swarms our world every day. Most of the time, it only stops when you or someone else runs outta ammo. My old man had a saying: If you've got a bigger gun, chances are you'll have to fire less than the other guy. That's how we've done it for centuries, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it." She beckoned with one hand, and workers pulled out a large, four-legged, metal contraption with a long barrel at the end. The hole was covered by two triangle-shaped, hinged metal pieces, almost like the jaws of a monster. At the press of a button, they opened wide, exposing the black hole of the barrel. "I give you, the Metroid Bombers. Deploy these things, and the bad guys will be begging you for a white flag to surrender with." The trigger on the launcher device was fired, launching dozens of basketball-sized mechanical devices into the air. The devices, the aforementioned Metroids, looked like metallic brains with four pincers on their bottoms, holding tiny metallic spheres. Floating over the mountains, the Metroids dropped their cargo, and the projectiles created massive, artillery shell-sized bursts, sending dust and smoke flying across the landscape. The generals had to literally hold onto their hats, which made clapping a whole lot harder.

With that done, Samus moved over to the Aran International cooler she had brought, trying her hardest not to strut like a prick. Popping it open revealed a large stash of alcohol, for which Samus poured herself a quick drink. "I'll throw one of these in with the purchase if anyone's interested. To peace," she toasted, raising her glass.

A ringing sound followed, coming from Samus' pocket. Popping it open, she turned on the video option, showing Robotnik lying on his back in bed. "Eggman, what're you doing up? It's the middle of the night over there," she chuckled.

Ivo returned the smile. "I wanted to know how it turned out," he responded, "So, did you make a good impression?"

"Definitely. I told you they would work."

Robotnik sighed in what sounded suspiciously like relief. "Great! Great job, Sammy. I'll see you back on U.S. soil."

"Why aren't you wearing those pajamas I sent you?" Samus inquired, narrowing her eyes.

Robotnik held up the shirt from the collection of garments in question. They were bright pink, and covered with tiny designs of eggs, as well as chicks hatching from them. Robotnik had been pretty astounded the Samus had even managed to find them in his size. The expression on his face pretty much stated his response.

Samus had to cover her mouth to stop herself from roaring with laughter. "Sorry, I guess that answer was kind of obvious. See you in the morning, Eggy."

"Have a good flight, _Princess,_ " responded Ivo, before he ended the call. Samus frowned slightly. Maybe she should start bugging him and Anthony. It'd be good to know in advance when they were trading insults. She climbed into the nearest humvee.

"Hey, Samus," called Anthony, rushing up to the vehicle in question. Samus poked her head out the window.

"Hey, this is the Enjoy Yourself car," she said, pointing behind them, "The Debbie Downer car is back there."

"Yeah, yeah," said Anthony, used to Samus' jokes by this point, "Just wanted to say, good job today."

Samus smiled a rare, non-sarcastic smile in return, "Thanks, man." Anthony walked off to join his own humvee.

The convoy proceeded to head back to the military base, following the barren dirt road. Of course, that didn't turn out exactly as planned.

* * *

 ***Eat your heart out, Stan Lee cameos!**

 ****If anybody's curious, this guy's from Apollo Justice. Hey, if Mega Man and Ryu are characters in the games, I can pull from a different Capcom series.**

 **Anybody who can guess the reason for the name of Samus' award gets a free virtual pizza! Hint: You have to look up the Apogee award from the actual movie.**


	3. Chapter 3: Cave Story

**Here's the next one. The story's really picking up now. Here comes the character development!**

* * *

Chapter 3: Cave Story

 **Present, location unknown**

 _Flashes of extreme pain...all she knew was pain. The pain of a scalpel slicing into her chest, or medical tweezers reaching deep inside her torso, pulling out tiny shards. She saw a fuzzy image of two feathery hands, holding a large, circular device, with wires running into her body..._

Samus bolted awake with a start, and was immediately aware of excruciating pain penetrating every inch of her body. The greatest concentration appeared just above her breast, stabbing into her heart area. Samus had never experienced heart disease in her life, for which she was grateful. However, she currently felt like a long metal needle was piercing the organ from the inside.

Deciding to get a better bearing, Samus looked around. The entire room was dark, only illuminated by a few lights attached to the ceiling. The walls appeared to be cragged stone, like a cave. Definitely not human-made. Across the room, a humanoid bird, likely one of the Chozo people, stood in front of a mirror, crudely attached to the wall. He or she was clipping facial feathers, and seemed to pay her no heed.

Samus herself was set on a small, featureless metal table. She looked down at herself, noticing she had been redressed in simple clothes, which looked considerably worn. Her zip-up shirt was open, exposing a large amount of gauze covering her chest. Two thin wires led out from under it to a car battery set on a nearby stool. A long nasal tube was placed in her nostril, attached with a piece of medical tape.

Her pulse quickening in fear, Samus grabbed the tube with both hands, pulling the length of plastic away from her head. Eventually, the tip reached her nostril, where it came out with a sickening pop. Despite the fact that every move made more pain shoot to her heart, Samus grabbed the gauze, ripping it apart with what little strength she had left.

"Careful," said a voice. Samus looked up in shock to see the Chozo studying her with mild interest through the mirror. The voice was definitely masculine, identifying the creature's gender. "You might hurt yourself."

"Screw...you..." Samus growled, feeling her dry throat crack as she spoke. She continued to pry at the gauze, but the reveal of what lay underneath wasn't any better. Samus gasped in panic, staring at her chest.

The black device from her dream (or was it a memory?) was grafted into her body, directly over her heart, and surrounded by stitches. The wires connected to the battery were clipped onto the top. As for the device itself, it was relatively featureless, though it looked old, and Samus was sure she could see bits of rust on it.

"Wha...wha...what the hell is this?! What did you do?!" screamed Samus. She immediately regretted it, as the exertion of her vocal chords sent her into a massive coughing fit. Each cough meant another bolt of pain in her chest.

"I saved your life. Does that answer your question?" asked the Chozo. He turned from the mirror, walking over to Samus. He handed her a glass of water. "Drink up. You need it."

Samus drank, feeling the water moisturize her throat once more. Deciding to take a chance, she propped herself up on her arms, pushing herself into a sitting position. Hurt like hell, but she had no desire to continue lying on her back like a dead animal. Looking again at the device in her chest, she zipped up her shirt to cover it.

"There was a ton of shrapnel in your chest," the Chozo continued, pulling out a dirty glass bottle, "I couldn't get it all out, unfortunately." Samus took the bottle, looking inside. There were several slivers of dagger-sharp metal, rolling around in the middle. The dried blood from her body still clung to them.

"I've seen it happen before. The shrapnel reaches the heart in about a week. Very, very painful way to die. Slow, too," continued the Chozo, smiling as though he found it funny.

At one time, Samus might have laughed along with him, but not at this particular moment. "And what...is this thing?" she coughed out, pointing to her heart.

"Electro magnet," the bird-like creature responded, "It's not strong enough to pull out the shrapnel, only keep it from piercing anything vital. Crude, of course, but we didn't have any better options."

Samus took another look around the cave. It was fairly empty, as most caves are, with only a few feature having been added by sentient beings. A fire pit was set up in the back, currently extinguished. Several more tables nearby held crude medical supplies, which had probably been used in her operation. A heavy duty metal door with a rectangular viewing hole stood on the far wall. Looking up, Samus noticed a wall-mounted security camera, pointed straight at them. Obviously, they were being watched.

"Who...are you?" she asked the Chozo, who was currently taking a drink himself.

"My name is Old Bird," said the Chozo, smiling at her, "Don't bother introducing yourself. You're especially well known out here for-"

He was interrupted by a loud bang on the door. The viewing hole was slipped open, revealing a pair of glowing orange eyes. A sound like a snarl was spoken, followed by a metallic rattling noise as someone tried to unlock the door.

"Quick!" snapped Old Bird, "Follow my actions if you want to live!" He stood up and put his feathery hands behind his head. Samus struggled to her feet and followed suit, trying not to rip the cables from her car battery.

The door swung open, and Samus was greeted by some of the most terrifying creatures she'd ever seen. They were just like the ones that had recorded the video with her bound to a chair. The same green body armor, purple scales, and elongated necks from the shoulders. Their eyes, visible for the first time, were a fiery orange. However, what caught the woman's eye were the weapons they had. Several had large blaster weapons strapped to their right wrists, as well as yellow, scythe-like blades on their belts. Others carried large, grey rifles with two barrels, and a blue section in the middle for the power source. These were all shockingly familiar.

"Those are my guns!" Samus whispered to Old Bird, "My energy scythes! How the hell do they have-"

Old Bird kicked her in the shin. "Shut up!" he hissed back. Judging by his tone, Samus decided now might not be the best time to question him.

The creatures parted, as another, who seemed to be some sort of leader, approached. Unlike the others, his (was it a he?) skin was grey, with a long blade-like horn jutting out the top of his head. He appeared to be unarmed. He spread his arms wide, and Samus noticed his hands were simple three-fingered claws. He then started growling and snarling in their native language, all while smiling at Samus.

"He says 'Welcome Samus Aran, our greatest ally in war,'" Old Bird translated, "He's honored to be in your presence."

Samus did not respond, continuing to stare at the creature. He proceeded to hand Old Bird a photograph, followed by more of his language. "He wants you to build more Metroid Bombers and a launcher," said Old Bird, "Like this." The picture was taken during Samus' demonstration to the military.

Samus held her breath. Throughout her career of visiting war zones, she had sometimes wondered what would happen if she were captured and interrogated. She'd always believed, or hoped, that she would be strong enough to refuse to obey, and resist any torture, but reality proved to be much more stressful. Every part of her was screaming to say yes, as she had no idea what they would do to her. Samus took a deep breath, stared the creature straight in the eye, and responded.

"No."

The smile on the scaly face immediately faded.

* * *

SPLASH!

Samus wasn't really familiar with the Chinese water torture, but at the moment, she thought it couldn't possibly be worse than this. One of the creatures had her by the back of her head, and was currently dunking her into a barrel of water repeatedly. The freezing cold liquid flooded her nostrils, mouth, and eyes. As if that wasn't bad enough, it was salt water, and left a burning sensation on her facial wounds. It flushed up her nose, blocking her air supply.

After a few minutes of this, they stopped, and thrust the car battery into her hands, as she was currently blind due to pain. Samus was in so much agony, she found she could barely whimper. Then, the leader of the creatures began to growl again.

"He says he thinks you won't want another round of that," said Old Bird, unable to keep his voice from shaking, "He'd like to show you something else."

* * *

Samus was led to the outside of the cave, into the sunny Zebesian desert. Blinking at the sudden change of light, Samus found herself in a small outdoor camp, with several tents set up. The lizard like creatures wandered about, carrying crates and other objects. But that wasn't what caught Samus' eye.

Rather, she noticed the fact that the place was littered with Aran International weapons. Large metal crates marked with the company's insignia were scattered around, along with larger missiles. Guns were stacked in neat rows, along with wheeled rocket launchers designed for one person.

It was at this precise moment that Samus' heart shattered. The weapons she had created to defend against terrorists like this were now in their hands. She didn't know how they had managed to acquire them, but it didn't really matter. They had the weapons, and had used them against United Federation troops. Troops who were never prepared for them.

Despite this, Samus made no change to her outside expression. The leader of the lizards spread his arms again, as if presenting his camp of death to Samus. He spoke again.

"He's asking if you're impressed," said Old Bird.

Samus shrugged. "Well, if you're a collector, you're not half bad."

Old Bird translated, and the lizard smiled and continued. "He says the equipment here is sufficient for you to build the Metroids," translated Old Bird, "He wants you to make a list of materials, and when you've completed the weapon, you'll be set free. He wants to know if you're in."

Samus thought for a moment, then reached out and shook the three-fingered claw. "Sure...except he won't," she said.

"No, he won't," agreed Old Bird in English.

The creature grinned, as he hadn't understood a word.

* * *

Samus sat back in her room with Old Bird, doing nothing but stare into the flames of the pit. She didn't feel like doing much else.

"So, you'll be giving terrorists even more of your work?" said Old Bird, "Great job on the whole patriot thing. You did nothing but fuel wars your entire life, why stop now?"

Samus shrugged. "Do you have any bright ideas?" she asked, "They'll probably kill you, and they'll keep me as long as I'm alive. They'll keep promising me my freedom, making me invent bigger and better weapons, until I drop dead." She tapped the magnet in her chest. "Even this thing won't keep me alive for much longer."

Old Bird opened his beak, but closed it, as though he had reconsidered what he was about to say. He looked at the camera for a moment, then sighed. "Well," he said somberly, "This is the last few weeks, maybe a month, of your life. What are you going to do with them?"

Samus prepared to yell at him, tell him that nothing really mattered anymore, but stopped. Samus was unique in the way that she came up with her inventions. Most people spent days struggling to even come up with a concept. Not Samus Aran. She had her ideas hit her like bolts of lightning, as one did just now.

For the first time since the convoy, Samus Aran smiled.

* * *

The number of materials Samus required for the "Metroids" was, unsurprisingly, massive. In addition to all of the weapons, Samus needed welding equipment, solder irons, and a heck of a lot more crap. Thankfully for her, the creatures easily provided every necessary item. Samus briefly wondered how they managed to get this stuff in the middle of the Zebesian desert, but it didn't really matter. She also requested that Old Bird be allowed to assist her. What followed was days of work, several of which Samus spent sketching and talking to herself, while Old Bird tried to figure out what they were doing.

"So who are these guys, anyway?" she asked him, as she snapped off the top of a missile.

"They call themselves the Space Pirates," said the Chozo, "They claim they're descended from creatures who arrived on Earth in meteors." Samus gave him a look. "I didn't say they were sane."

"So, how exactly do you speak their language?" continued Samus. She pulled out the contents of the missile, revealing the explosive pack encased in a metal cage.

"It's an old Chozo dialect," said Old Bird, "They just adapted it for themselves. Probably the only reason I'm still alive is for translator purposes."

Samus took the piece of metal over to the table, opening the metal packaging with a screwdriver. Finding what she needed, she pried out a small strip of a black material attached to the missile's interior. "Okay, we don't need this," she said, casually tossing the rest of it over her head.

"If you have a plan, would you mind telling me the details?" asked Old Bird, as he curiously watched her.

Samus held up the strip of metal. "See this?" she asked, "Bendezium. This is only a couple of grams. Maybe, I don't know, 0.31 at most. We need at least 1.5." She pointed to the remaining missiles. "You want to help? Start popping those open."

Old Bird sighed, then grabbed one of the missiles.

Once they had a sufficient amount of the metal, the next task was to put it all in a stone container, and place it in the fire pit. After it melted into liquid, the metal was poured into a circular mold, and cooled into a metal ring. The ring was placed into a small glass dish, around which Samus soldered metal plating, eventually forming a small, circular device the size of a baseball.

She attached it via a cable to a car power pack. "Should only take one push to get it going," she said, and activated the power pack. A brief sparking sound was followed by an electrical hum, and the newly constructed device came to life. The top had a partially clear surface, with one circular spot in the center, and lines going out in all directions. Through all these, a bright blue glow became visible, emanating from the center of the device.

Old Bird stared over her shoulder, as Samus held the small device in her hands. "I...don't think that's a Metroid Bomber," he stated, "Unless it's part of the launcher."

Samus grinned. "Nice try," she joked, "This is an Aurora Unit Reactor. My old man's greatest creation...or, so he said. Large scale version powers my factory. We take apart this piece of junk," she tapped the magnet in her chest, "And put this baby in there. My heart should be safe from the shrapnel."

"Won't they ask about that?"

"Hey, they want me to live long enough to build them weapons don't they?"

"True. What does it generate?" asked Old Bird, curiously.

"Well, usually my math is one hundred percent accurate, so about three gigajoules per second. Maybe slightly more, though," Samus responded.

Old Bird was shocked. "That could power your heart for decades!" he exclaimed, "And you can build this in a cave?! With a box of scraps?!*"

Samus suddenly looked up. "Did you just feel a chill in the air?"

Old Bird shifted his attention. "Yeah, I think I did."

"Let's not bring that up again."

"Let's not."

"Anyway," said Samus, "This is only step one."

"Do you actually have a plan?" asked Old Bird, skeptically.

The woman pulled out another set of sketches, flattening them together and allowing the light to shine through the papers, exposing all of the components one each page at the same time. Old Bird took one look and exclaimed, "Are you crazy?!"

"Yes," said Samus simply, "But that helps."

The device pictured was, at first glance, several odd metallic components. Once the sketches were pressed together, it was clear what one was looking at. It was a suit of armor, composed entirely out of sturdy metal, welded together. It completely covered the body of the wearer, with the only opening on the helmet, where a horizontal opening acted as an eye hole. Instead of hands, the suit had blaster-like barrels at the end of both arms, both of which were connected to a fuel tank on the back. The connecting tubes also led to the feet, although the tubes were cleverly hidden inside the armor. The rest of the suit didn't look too shabby, either.

"Wow," said Old Bird.

* * *

While this was all going on, the Space Pirates had indeed been watching Samus and the Chozo on the security feed. The grey skinned commander, Gorea, kept a careful eye to ensure they were working at all times. So far, they hadn't disappointed. Every so often, Gorea reported to his boss, Supreme Master Weavel, on their progress.

As Old Bird had predicted, the Pirates had questioned them about the sudden appearance of Samus' Aurora Unit Reactor. Upon Samus' insistence that it was merely intended to keep her alive long enough to finish, as well as a quick inspection of the device, they allowed her to keep it. After all, surely a tiny little generator couldn't hurt any of them.

Unfortunately for the Pirates, ignorance truly was bliss.

* * *

Several days after the creation of the reactor, Samus and Old Bird were waiting for the metal plates they had just molded to cool down. In order to pass the time, the two competed in a crude version of Balist, a Chozo game. Resembling a two player pinball, the objective was to use two flippers to knock a small ball into the opponents goal. Samus was currently in the midst of getting her butt kicked by Old Bird.

"I swear you're cheating," snapped Samus as Old Bird took his fifth score to her two.

Old Bird grinned. "Well, admittedly I do have a decades worth of practice over you, miss," he laughed.

Deciding to change the subject, Samus asked, "So, do you have any family?"

"Yes," said Old Bird, "In my village of K-2L. And once we get out of her, I'm going to see them. What about you?"

Samus was silent for a few moments, before mumbling a negative response.

"Hm," said Old Bird, "So the woman who has everything, also has nothing."

Samus would have argued, and brought up the friends she had, but at the moment, she found herself too exhausted to do so.

* * *

 ***Yep, I went there.**

 **And next time: Rise of the Mark I!**


	4. Chapter 4: The Great Escape

**Man, I am really cranking theses out. Thank God for summer, ya know? Anyway, I like parts of this chapter, but not all of it. I had to pull a lot of the descriptions out of nowhere, and they might sound boring. Then again, what do I know?**

 **Guest Reviewer: Hey, you actually guessed some of the character roles correctly! I won't tell you which ones, but you'll see in the near future.**

 **Note: All italicized dialogue is translated from the Space Pirate language.**

* * *

Chapter 4: The Great Escape

Days turned into weeks, or possibly even months. When you're living in a cave, and don't see the outside very often, you tend to lose track of the date. Through this time, Samus and Old Bird continued to labor, attempting to disguise the fact that they weren't building small, flying bomber drones.

The Space Pirates keep constant watch over them. Gorea, being naturally paranoid, occasionally snuck up to the door, opened the viewing hole, and glanced around, searching for details the camera couldn't see. However, all he ever witnessed was the woman and the Chozo hard at work, welding pieces of metal together. Seeing nothing amiss, he left them to it.

However, as the suit progressed, it became harder and harder to keep it covered up. The Space Pirates were smart enough to always have at least one person watching the cameras, so they could never work without caution. The best they could do was place devices that were definitely suspicious out of the camera's view. The leg apparatus of the armor had to be tested to ensure it would extend properly, which meant Samus had to wear it, but that definitely couldn't be caught on camera. They ended up "accidentally" breaking one of the lights, and tested it quickly in the dark.

Of course, it was inevitable that doubt of their plans grew in the minds of the Space Pirates. In this case, it was Gorea, who kept comparing their creations to the picture of the Metroid Launcher. He knew very little about the engineering involved in creating such a weapon, but after several weeks, he grew suspicious that nothing they produced remotely resembled the Metroids, or the Launcher. Worried, he approached the Supreme Master, Weavel, for an update.

 _"Master,"_ he growled in their native language, _"It's Aran and the bird. I don't think they're building our weapon."_

 _"Why?"_ asked Weavel.

Gorea showed him the picture of the Metroids. _"Whatever they're building, it looks nothing like this. Unless they're making it better for us, they're up to something."_

Weavel leveled his glowing yellow eyes at his second-in-command. Then he gave an order.

* * *

Samus was in the process of welding the chest plate together. Ideally, one would simply use measurements of her body, and build one with those dimensions, but Samus had another problem. Since the Aurora Unit Reactor would be the power source, the armor had to accommodate for it, as well as carry it's power to the rest of the suit. Basically, just because you're a genius billionaire, building a suit of powered battle armor isn't an exact science, especially when it's the first of it's kind.

Unfortunately, they were interrupted by a loud bang on the door, and a snarl in the Space Pirate language before it opened. Samus removed her goggles and put her hands behind her head, and Old Bird followed suit. The action had become reflexive by this point. In marched Gorea and several of his henchmen, along with Supreme Master Weavel.

Now, Weavel was unique among his species. He had bright green scales, and his head had four short horns poking out of it. His limbs seemed a lot more muscular than those of his brethren, and it seemed to Samus that he had at least a couple more digits. He had lips covering his knife-like teeth, unlike the others. On his right arm, he held his own special energy scythe, which looked more like a massive sword blade.

He waved his hand, signaling Samus and Old Bird to lower their arms. He walked over to Samus first, poking the Aurora Unit Reactor through her shirt. Ordinarily, Samus would've booted someone in the important place if they'd come this close to groping her, but she had no desire to find out what he would do with that blade, particularly if he didn't kill her.

"Do you know what a conqueror requires?" he asked Samus, as he looked over their work.

Samus decided not to ask about the fact that he spoke English. "No," she responded.

"They require three things to succeed," continued Weavel, "First, there is the need for an army. Then, knowledge of tactics is required to utilize that army to it's fullest potential. Finally, to ensure they cannot be challenged, a conqueror needs the best weapons available. In this day and age, Aran International provides those weapons." He turned to stare Samus straight in the eye. _"Yet you seem determined to deny that role."_ Samus blinked at him, wondering why he had changed languages, but didn't question it.

Old Bird decided to try and defuse this situation. _"We've been working hard on the Metroids,"_ he protested, _"It's more complicated than it looks."_

Weavel turned to him. _"You know,"_ he snarled, _"I didn't need to keep you alive. But if you're so determined to be ungrateful..."_ He made a signal, and several Space Pirates grabbed Old Bird by the arms, forcing him to his knees. Samus' eyes widened in shock.

 _"I swear, we are building the Metroids,"_ insisted Old Bird.

Weavel took a wrench, grabbing a hot coal from the fire pit. _"If you keep regurgitating lies, I will plug that hole with this,"_ he spat. He held the burning stone close to Old Bird's beak. _"What are you working on?!"_

 _"The Metroids!"_ screeched Old Bird.

Samus, who hadn't understood any of the conversation, stepped in. "What do you want? A time window of arrival?" she demanded, stepping forward. However, she was forced to put her hands up, as the Space Pirate henchmen immediately pointed all of their guns at her.

Weavel looked up from his torture preparations. "You have something to add, Aran?" he asked.

"I need him alive," protested Samus, "I can't make the Metroids by myself. You kill him, you lose them. None of your guys are assistant material for this."

Weavel looked at Old Bird, then at Samus. After a moment's consideration, he dropped the coal back into the pit, then snapped his fingers. His soldiers released their grip on Old Bird who struggled to his feet. The Chozo looked at Samus, nodding in gratitude.

Weavel walked back over to Samus, placing one clawed finger right in front of her left eye. "You have till morning. If my Metroids aren't finished by then, I will take this, and the bird," he snarled, sending drops of saliva into her face. He made another motion with his hand, and his troops followed him out the door, slamming it shut behind them.

Old Bird massaged his pained wrists, looking up at Samus.

"Time window's been narrowed," she declared, grabbing her welding torch, "We have to work faster."

* * *

The next few hours were spent rapidly hammering (sometimes literally) out the rest of the armor with a newly instilled sense of panic. An electric motor, the driving force behind the movement of the suit, was quickly fashioned out, and attached to the back. The Aurora Unit Reactor would provide the power for it, thankfully. Finally, the suit was complete.

Samus began by putting on a thick jacket, and her working gloves for insulation, while Old Bird hoisted the chest armor up on a crude crane system. Samus stepped into the lower body section, and the top was lowered onto her body, where she fit her arms through the suit. She felt the triggers installed inside the arm cannons, making sure they were tight. Old Bird attached the helmet to the back of the suit, slipping the face shield over Samus' face.

"Okay, get ready to start the power up sequence," she said, her voice muffled by the iron mask.

"Already on it," replied Old Bird, who was busy typing on a connected laptop.

* * *

In the security room, Weavel came in to take a look at the latest developments of their prisoners. Looking into the security cameras, he was shocked to notice that Samus appeared to have vanished. Old Bird was still on screen, but he was on the very edge of the camera's view, working on a laptop.

 _"What happened to Aran?"_ he demanded.

 _"She just walked off the edge,"_ replied the Space Pirate on monitor duty, _"I'm sure it's nothing-"_

He changed that opinion pretty quickly after Weavel swiped his claw across the soldier's face. _"Idiot!"_ screamed the Master, _"Look in the room!"_

The Space Pirate, knowing better than to argue, grabbed his gun, and took his partner down to the room, while Weavel stayed and stared at the monitors. If they thought they could stab him in the back, they were in for a terrible surprise.

* * *

"Are you still sure you can move in that thing?" asked Old Bird, as he kept typing.

Inside the arm cannons of the suit, Samus flexed her fingers experimentally, careful not to pull on the triggers. "I think so," she replied, "We won't know until it fully activates. Do you have the progress bar yet?"

"I'm trying!" insisted the Chozo.

They were interrupted by the familiar bang on the door. A Space Pirate stuck his head through the observation window, growling in his native tongue. The only words they were able to catch were "Aran" and "Bird," as the pirate tried to force the door open. Clearly, the door had been jammed from the other side somehow.

"What's he saying?" asked Samus.

"Let's just say he's not happy," replied Old Bird.

On the other side of the door, the two Space Pirates decided they had had enough, and rammed the door with both of their shoulders. Unfortunately all this did was activate the small bomb Samus and Old Bird had strapped to the door, blowing it off it's hinges and sending the two Pirates flying back. They slammed into the floor and didn't move.

"Oh, my God..." gasped Old Bird, staring at the two dead Pirates lying on the ground.

"See?" said Samus, "I told you that was a good idea!"

* * *

Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by Weavel and the others. The bomb blew out one of the hall security cameras, turning one of the screen into a blur of static.

Seeing this, Weavel screamed in rage, ordering his henchmen to rush down to the room. They armed themselves, and followed his orders. Whatever Aran and Bird were trying to pull, they would suffer for it.

* * *

With the power-up sequence activated, a energy progress bar appeared on the screen, showing how much power the suit had accumulated. Old Bird was trying to speed up the process, with little success.

"Remember what we planned," said Samus, "I go out first. Three checkpoints to clear out: The security room, then the entrance, and then the camp outside. Do not follow me until I give you the signal."

"This thing's never gonna charge up in time!" said Old Bird, frantically, "They're already on their way!"

"Forget them!" snapped Samus, "Just stick to the plan. It'll be fine!"

Old Bird looked at the progress bar. Despite all his attempts, the power reserves of the suit had only gone up to about fifty percent. The Pirates would be here in less than one minute. If they arrived before the suit powered up, Samus would be helpless. "No it won't," he said bluntly. He grabbed a rifle from one of the dead Pirates, then turned back to Samus. "Wait here, I'll stall them for a while."

"No, Old Bird!" shouted Samus, as he rushed out the front door, "Old Bird, get your feathery ass back here right now!"

Old Bird summoned up all of his willpower to ignore his companions shouts, even as traces of concern and fear entered into her tone. Instead, he charged down the hall, taking cover behind a rock and prepping his rifle. As the group of Pirates sent rounded the corner, he fired a burst of bullets at them from his cover.

The Pirates may have been ruthless, but they weren't especially brave. At the sound of the gun, they turned around and dived backwards down the cave, praying they wouldn't get hit. Old Bird grew confidant at this particular development, and rushed down the hall, gun blazing. The Pirates, panicking, rushed away, screaming like little girls. Old Bird continued to follow them, spraying bullets into the ceiling and doing his best war whoops.

As he rounded the corner to the entrance, Old Bird raised his weapon and prepared to cover his enemies with bullets. However, once he actually reached the cave opening, something made him stop dead in his tracks. That something was Weavel, with his entire force behind him, all with their guns pointed at Old Bird.

 _"Was this really the best you could do?"_ growled Weavel, _"I'm actually disappointed."_

Gritting his beak in defiance, Old Bird raised his rifle.

Only one shot was fired.

Meanwhile, back in the work room, the computer indicated that the suit's power reserves had reached one hundred percent. The lights in the room dimmed, as an electrical hum was heard.

* * *

With the Bird disposed of, the scout group of Space Pirates returned to the work room to find Samus. The first things they noticed was the fact that they had two dead comrades on the ground, and all the lights appeared to have been extinguished. The Space Pirates walked inside cautiously, wishing they had brought flashlights.

One of them, being particularly stupid, wandered away from his comrades, noticing the table that had been converted into a crude crane. Suspecting that Aran could be hiding behind it, he walked over to it, intending to poke his scaly head around...and was met with a clubbing metal blow of the top of his head. He barely managed to let out a growl before unconsciousness claimed him.

Hearing their companion's sound of pain, the others immediately did what they do best: shoot. Bullets flew everywhere, covering the entire room, and bouncing off of pieces of metal and rock. After a few seconds of this, they were convinced that it was probably safe, and set out to search the room further.

That was when she struck.

A massive grey figure, composed entirely of hard metal, with a glowing white circle in the upper left corner of it's chest, lunged forward, catching the Space Pirates completely off guard. The being had no hands, and it's arms ended in long barrels, like those of guns. However, that didn't seem to matter, as the figure clubbed two of the Pirates over the head with it's arms, knocking them out instantly. The remaining one, in fear, opened fire on the being, but his bullets bounced off it's metal skin harmlessly. Eventually, the armored monstrosity reached him, and backhanded him, sending him into a wall.

"Not bad," Samus said with a grin. The armor was pretty uncomfortable, but it seemed to be serving it's purpose. The multiple layers of iron and steel that had gone into making the body was able to withstand the bullets, as well as deliver enough physical force to get them out of the way. Perfect. Now for the fun part.

Samus stomped down the hall, taking down enemy Pirates as she went. One brave (or stupid), soul ran up to her, frantically shooting and hoping he could penetrate the suit at close range. He was knocked out immediately. Samus stomped on his gun as she passed, crushing it into scrap metal.

Ahead, another group of Pirates slammed another metal door closed, and she could hear them trying to jam it. Inside the armor, Samus fought the urge to laugh. Good luck with that one, guys. She marched up to the door, pulled one foot back, and kicked the door once, then twice, causing the metal to buckle. She delivered one final kick, sending it falling back like a ton of bricks. The Pirates on the other side hadn't even had time to react before they were pinned under the metal panel.

Once it was clear they couldn't stop her, most of the Space Pirates began to run, although some of the idiots remained to try and take shots at Samus. She thrust her right cannon into one's face, but a piece of loose metal got caught on the rock wall. As she tried to dislodge it, a Pirate drew his handgun, ran up to Samus, and fired point blank into her helmet. The bullet ricocheted off and shot back into his forehead. Samus looked down at him, wondering briefly why this exact scene from the movie made it into this story. Then she wrenched her arm free.

She mad a quick stop at the security office, just to be sure no weapons stored there would go unnoticed. Everybody seemed to have run out of there as soon as her escape plan was enacted, and all that was left was a rack with some extra rifles. Samus smashed these just to be sure.

The rest of her journey through the cave was obstacle free. Once she reached the end, however, she was greeted by a dreadful sight. Old Bird lay against the wall, holding one feathered hand to his chest. She could clearly see the spread of blood covering his natural cloak.

"Old Bird!" shouted Samus, unable to comprehend the horror she was witnessing.

"Look...out..." croaked the Chozo.

Samus turned towards the opening of the cave, just in time to see Weavel, armed with a long black rifle with green stripes. Recognizing an Aran International Battlehammer, Samus attempted to leap backwards, but thanks to the suit's weight, she only fell backwards into a wall.

Thankfully, this was enough. Weavel fired a green energy ball that zoomed past Samus' face, hit the back wall, and exploded. Getting back up, Samus pointed her right arm at him, pressing a button inside the armor. The cannon fired, launching a small, yellow sphere at Weavel, who managed to duck. However, the power bomb burst behind him, blowing up the wall and slicing his body with dozens of stone fragments. The explosion's force sent Weavel flying, where he slammed into a wall face first, passing out on impact.

"Take that, ya son of a bitch," said Samus, before she moved over to Old Bird. She put her fingers through the side of one cannon to raise her face shield. Then she pulled his hand away from his chest, discovering the source of the blood: One bullet hole. She couldn't tell if it had penetrated a lung or something, but at the moment, all of her knowledge had flown out the window anyway. She applied more pressure to the wound as she kept talking, "Okay, I'll take the rest of the guys. You get ready to follow the plan. Follow me when I signal, okay?"

Old Bird laughed. A hoarse, painful sound, causing him to wretch slightly. "For such...a genius, Samus,...you're being pretty...dumb here," he coughed out.

"No," insisted Samus, trying to ignore the drips rolling down her face, "You are getting out of here. You are going back to your family."

"They're dead..." choked out Old Bird, "The Pirates...killed them...I'll see them." He reached up with one feathery finger, wiping a tear from Samus' face. "It's okay...it's okay."

Samus tried to object again, but found that she could not. She gave in, smiling bittersweetly as she held Old Bird's hand. "Thank you," she whispered.

Old Bird nodded, coughed one more time, then leaned back. The life slowly faded from his aged eyes, and his body fell completely limp. He was gone.

Samus did not cry out, but the tears continued to come. She had seen the Chozo as a friend, one of the closest she'd ever had. This despite the fact that she'd only known him for two months, at most. She felt all the times she had been carelessly cruel to those close to her, and how she hadn't even been the nicest to the Chozo. Yet, when the time came, Old Bird had traded his life for hers.

At that moment, Samus Aran made a vow. Wherever she went, she would never waste her life again. Old Bird had given her another chance at life, and she was going to take it.

Raising her gloved fingers, Samus closed Old Bird's eyes. Standing up, she turned back towards the entrance. It was time to leave this place.

* * *

The Space Pirates outside the cave had been charged with guard duty, as well as protecting the massive piles of Aran International weapons. They'd heard the screams, bullets, and explosions inside the cave, but had been ordered to stay outside. The sounds had ceased, but there was no word from their comrades. So they had grabbed their weapons, aiming them at the entrance to the cave, just in case.

This turned out to be a good idea, as the silence was followed by several loud thumps, like the sound of metal plates slamming against stone. Then, Samus came into view, and the sounds turned out to be her gigantic footsteps. Not recognizing the armored person in front of them, the Pirates decided the best course of action would be to open fire.

The bullets flew forward, but did absolutely nothing to slow the armored woman. The only indication that the metal projectiles were even touching the suit was the sparks and the metallic clang that resonated throughout the desert. Eventually, the onslaught of bullets simply stopped, as the Pirates ran out of ammo.

"Is that it?" asked Samus, staring down the dumbfounded creatures, "Okay, good. Now I'm up."

Reaching to the edge of her cannons, she pulled the triggers, igniting tiny flames at the tip of the tubes inside. The tubes which led to the fuel pack.

Immediately, massive streams of fire burst out of the tips of her cannons, spraying over everything in sight. Space Pirates everywhere began screaming and running in all directions. Only a couple of unlucky ones got right in the path of the flames. Samus stomped down the path, directing her flamethrowers at all of the Aran International weapons. Missiles, bombs, guns, and everything else all went up in flames. Explosions burst around Samus as she continued her walk of destruction, burning everything within reach. A couple of Space Pirates managed to reload their guns and fire at her again, but it produced the same useless result.

Suddenly, Samus felt a massive thud on her foot, and nearly fell face-first into the ground. Looking down, she realized she had jammed one boot into a small hole, and was now immobile. This wouldn't have been so bad, except for the fact that everything was currently exploding around her, and the surviving Space Pirates were still trying to shoot her. Samus stumbled, angrily trying to pry her foot free, to no avail.

There was one other option. Taking her right hand out of the arm cannon, she reached over to her other metal sleeve, flipping open a metal compartment, and revealing one red button. She jammed her finger into it. Time to jump the shark.

Sparks began to fly from her boots, followed by erupting flames. A few seconds later, the built in jets sent Samus rocketing into the air, just as one final explosion consumed all of the weapons. Samus went flying through the flames, rising above them like a missile, and soared out of the mountainous region. She was free.

Then the boots gave out.

Samus shouted, more out of surprise than fear, as she immediately plummeted towards the ground. As she fell, air friction caused pieces of her armor to break off, spinning in the air along side her. Eventually, she plunged into the endless sea of sand.

Dazed from the crash, Samus opened her eyes. Most of her armor was in pieces, having shattered around her on impact. On top of that, she was buried up to her elbows in sand. Thankful her body hadn't suffered the same fate, Samus shrugged off what remained of her arm cannons, then pulled her helmet off, exposing her to the rays of the sun.

"That...could have gone better," she muttered.

* * *

Despite the fact that she had been a prisoner, living in a cave had one benefit: it was extremely cold. When you're cold, you can just throw on more layers, but when you're hot, you can't just take off more layers, unless you're willing to be arrested for public indecency. The deserts of Zebes were known for being brutally hot, and Samus was trudging through one without water. She had wrapped her jacket around her head to avoid sunburns, but if she didn't find any help soon, she'd pass out from heatstroke.

Of course, that was when a United States helicopter went flying over her head.

"Hey! Guys! Hey!" called Samus, unable to keep the laughter out of her voice. She raised both hands and waved furiously, only stopping when she noticed the helicopter landing. Her legs decided they'd had enough, and gave out, causing her to collapse on her knees.

Several soldiers came out of the helicopter to help her. Samus' spirit was lifted even further when she noticed who was leading them. Anthony rushed over to her, tears of joy running down his own face.

"Sammy! Sammy! You're alive! You're okay..." he cried out, throwing his arms around her shoulders.

Samus returned the gesture, her eyes wetting a little as well.

* * *

 **Sorry if this chapter seems really corny. This is just an emotional moment in the movie.**


	5. Chapter 5: Clean Slate

**Alright, we're moving into the fun part of the movie now. This chapter doesn't feature too much plot advancement, but I like it. As always, read and review, and if you like it, favorite and follow.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Clean Slate

 **Malibu, California**

Samus had been an enemy's prisoner for nearly two months. Of course, being as famous as her, it was impossible for that to go unnoticed by the media. Her capture, as well as presumed death, had made national headlines, and led to unbearable fears across the country, especially at Aran International.

Then came the news of her escape, and everybody released the breath didn't know they'd been holding. After Lieutenant Higgs revealed that she had been found alive, it was decided she should land at the local Air Force base, mostly out of paranoia. The paparazzi, ever persistent, still tried to get in, but they were forced off by a combination of the military's persuasiveness, and some connections Olimar had built up over the years. He had a lot of experience fending them off.

Speaking of Olimar, he stood in the landing area as Samus' plane descended. The cruising jet came to a skidding stop, with it's back facing him. The ramp slowly lowered, revealing his old boss, to his immense joy and relief, though he would never admit it. Samus had numerous scratches over her face that were still healing, her right arm was in a sling, and she sat in a wheelchair. However, her characteristic toughness kicked in, as she stood up and walked down the ramp, with Anthony standing by in case she fell. Samus' legs did wobble a bit, and those first steps seemed to strain her, but otherwise she stood as strong as she ever had.

Several military personnel wheeled a stretcher over, clearly intending to take Samus to the hospital. Perfectly reasonable, as nobody knew exactly what had happened to her. However, Samus brushed them off, declaring, "I'm good. Get it outta here." Olimar smiled at this development. If Samus' attitude was intact, she would be just fine.

Samus walked up to Olimar, a pleasant grin on her face. "You've been crying," she noticed, looking at her employee's red eyes, "You actually missed me, didn't you?"

Olimar laughed it off, even if they both knew she was right. "More like crying because you made it. I could've finally gotten out of this job."

Samus rolled her eyes. "Yeah, right. You can't live without my charms."

"Wanna put that to the test?"

"Not particularly."

They climbed into the back of Samus' limo. Telma turned around in the front seat. "So where are we off to, miss?"

"The hospital, Telma," said Olimar, "She still needs to get checked-"

"No," ordered Samus.

Olimar turned to her. He could understand refusing the stretcher, but this was not acceptable. "Samus, you were held captive, you need-"

"No, I don't, "said Samus, sternly, "I need two things. I need a taste of crappy home fast food, and I need to schedule a press conference."

"A press conference?" said Olimar. He'd expected Samus to at least take a few days before talking about her experience. She was tough, but nobody was that trauma resistant. "What do you need a press conference for?"

Samus ignored him. "Telma," she said "Drive. Get the food. I want the greasiest place in town."

* * *

A few minutes later, Samus' limo pulled up to the conference center. Robotnik was standing there, along with a massive crowd of reporters. He opened her limo door, and pulled her into a massive hug.

"Sammy!" he exclaimed with joy, "I thought you were gonna be at the hospital."

Samus shrugged. "Hospitals are for wimps, Eggman," she answered.

Robotnik smiled from ear to ear. "You know, I never thought I would be glad to hear you call me that," he laughed. Then, noticing what was in her hands, asked "Is that a cheeseburger?"

"Yeah," said Samus casually, as she bit another chunk out.

They made their way into the main conference room. Reporters began taking spots, determined to be as close to the stage as possible, while Samus and Robotnik stepped up to the podium. Olimar and Anthony took their places in the back of the room. Before the conference started, Olimar was tapped on the shoulder, and heard a whisper of "Excuse me, Mr. Pik? Lieutenant Higgs?"

Both men turned around. Standing behind them was an anthropomorphic fox with brown fur. He wore a green suit with a gray vest, black and red boots, and black sunglasses, which he removed. He had no recorder or anything, so clearly this guy wasn't a reporter. He seemed to be more of an agent type, and Anthony was pretty sure the bulge in his vest was from a gun of some kind.

"Sorry, sir," said Olimar, "But Miss Aran has already given her statement to the Department of Defense, so all of the details of the terrorists who captured her are on record."

"Oh, I'm not with the D.O.D.," said the fox, extending his hand to shake them both, "My name is Agent Fox McCloud. I represent the State of Attack and Fear Elimination." He handed them a business card. "We're working separate from the other agencies. We would like to debrief Miss Aran on the details of her escape from her prison at some point, if that's possible?"

Olimar was a little weirded out by this question. Why would anybody ask how Samus had managed to escape? Did it matter? But, then again, he'd heard stranger requests in his day. He could easily verify if this agency was real. He nodded to Fox. "I'll see if I can set something up," he answered.

"Thank you," responded Fox, and he walked away.

Meanwhile, Robotnik stood at the podium microphone, while Samus sat in front of it. "Okay, thank you all for coming. We're all overjoyed that Sammy has returned, safely," Ivo started, smiling into the crowd. He looked down at the woman in question, who was finishing off her burger.

"Hey, does anybody wanna sit down?" asked Samus, "Let's just relax. This doesn't have to be a formal, big deal." The reporters seemed to agree, as they all sank to the floor. "Yeah, this is a lot better."

Robotnik sat down on the edge next to her. "So, what do you have for us, Sammy?"

Samus looked straight towards the crowd, but there was a look in her eyes. Nobody could place it, but it seemed she had a new expression in her eyes nobody had ever seen. It was like she wasn't actually looking at the crowd of assembled reporters, but rather at something in the distance. When she began to speak, it carried none of her usual, laid-back charisma.

"I never actually got to say good-bye to Mom and Dad. By the time I got to the hospital, they'd both already passed away," she said, "But, when he was alive, Dad always told me that the family business was for the greater good. That we made the world a safer place." She closed her eyes for a moment, then continued. "The families of those troops who were killed in my convoy didn't get to say good-bye, either. They were gunned down, by the weapons I designed, in the hands of terrorists. Those weapons went to the very people they were supposed to stop. I saw that the system I created did not discriminate on who it killed, and that I was indirectly responsible for their deaths, as well as who knows how many others. Not only that, but to escape from the prison of those same terrorists, a good man gave his life, so I could keep mine. I-I can't. I just can't have that anymore."

Robotnik turned his eyes warily towards Samus. He'd been expecting some speech about how this pain would be channeled into defending the United States more than ever. He thought she might sound slightly more serious, because that's what trauma does to people. This, however, was totally unexpected.

One of the reporters raised his arm. "Miss Aran...what exactly happened out there?"

Samus stood up and walked behind the podium. She needed them to see that this decision was not made by a wounded woman on her knees. This was Samus Aran, through and through.

"I learned that I made a mistake," she continued, "I learned that building bigger and bigger guns doesn't make the problem go away. Because the bad guys get their hands on those bigger guns sooner or later, and then we're right back where we started. So I'm going to do something about that. Effective immediately, I'm permanently shutting down all weapons production at Aran International. I intend to take this company in a peaceful and beneficial direction."

Unfortunately for Samus, that last sentence went almost completely unheard, as the previous one sent the reporters into a frenzy. They rushed towards the podium, all talking at once, trying to get her attention, while photographers went crazy. Olimar and Anthony just stood at the back of the crowd, with their eyes and mouths wide open, unsure how to react. Robotnik began trying to move Samus away from the podium, in an attempt to defuse the situation.

"Yeah, yeah," he stammered to the crowd, "Okay, so, uh, Miss Aran has obviously had a really long day. Stress, and all that. Once again, thanks for giving us your time. We'll..uh...follow up on this in a couple of days."

* * *

The thing about Segways is that anybody riding them looks completely ridiculous. However, at a point nobody could remember, some idiot at Aran International had decided they would be an effective method of getting around the factory. So, if you wanted to around the complex without moving to another parking lot, and didn't wanna walk, you had to take a Segway. Which Robotnik was currently doing, as he was on his way to meet Samus in the reactor building.

Internally, Robotnik groaned. The day had been a PR nightmare, and it wasn't even after five. Part of him wanted to just lock himself and Samus in a closet, scream at her for five minutes, ask what she was thinking, and then throw her out. However, that was an impractical solution, all things considered. She'd probably just tune him out. He parked his stupid Segway at the entrance, and pushed through the door, noticing Samus observing the Aurora Unit Reactor.

The full scale reactor was quite different from the one Samus had recently built. Other than "shaped like a giant brain," there was no way to describe it's bizarre appearance. Long blue cables, resembling tendrils in this context, extended out of the massive device, pulsing with the same blue glow as the reactor. They carried the energy all over the factory, powering the majority of the building's functions.

"That..." said Robotnik, casually, "...could have gone better."

"I thought it went fine," said Samus, "Nobody threw their shoes at me."

"You are aware you basically put up a giant neon sign on the company logo that says 'Abandon ship,' right?" said Robotnik, "Sammy, our stock is gonna be thrown out with the trash!"

Samus shrugged. "It doesn't matter. We'll build back up again."

"With what?! Samus, we've built weapons for decades! It's what we do! It's kept our soldiers safe, and helped this country protect people."

"That's not true," responded Samus, "I saw what happened. All we were doing was increasing the arsenal size on both sides. You know what I call that? Creating war. I know for a fact Dad would've done the same thing."

"You can't just throw out everything the company has worked on for the past half a century!" snapped Robotnik.

Samus smirked. "Whose name is on the outside of the building? And the company logo? And on everything we produce?" Robotnik may have been a good business partner, but he did occasionally act like a control freak. She supposed that came from his years of running the company while she was too young. Usually, just reminding him who was truly in charge was enough to shut him up.

"Okay, let's say we agree to stop making weapons," said Robotnik, "Hypothetically. What direction do you have in mind? Compete with Apple? Start building our own iPhones?"*

Samus pointed at the Aurora Unit Reactor. "I think this would be a good place to start," she answered.

Robotnik tried to hold a serious face, but that didn't last very long. After a few seconds, he broke down laughing, shaking his shoulders from the force of it. "The Aurora Unit Reactor?!" he chuckled, "Are you kidding? We built that to get environmental groups off our back. It's inefficient, and we haven't had a single advancement since Rodney came up with the idea."

Samus turned back to the reactor. "Maybe we haven't had any advancements because we haven't touched it in decades. Maybe Dad was onto something huge, and he didn't even know it. Besides, the thing's not as inefficient as you make it sound."

"It's a dead end, Sammy," said Robotnik.

"Honestly, I think we just haven't taken a close enough look."

"It's not like anyone's come up with any brilliant ideas in a cave, with a box of scraps, am I right?"

Samus turned back to him, giving him the only appropriate look to respond to that. "Okay, one, you are a terrible liar. Second, is that gonna become a running gag in this stupid story? It wasn't even that funny to begin with."

Robotnik shrugged. "Who knows?" he asked, "Maybe it's just really easy to make jokes out of."

"Are you kidding me? We don't have any better material?"

"Apparently not." Robotnik turned around, throwing a roll of duct tape to a crewman. "Would you go patch up the fourth wall? Thanks."

Ignoring those last few lines, Samus continued, "Seriously, who spilled the beans? Anthony or Olimar? I need to know whose underwear drawer to fill with dead fish."

"Who are you, the mafia?" asked Robotnik, "Come on, show me."

"Whatever, Eggy," said Samus. She undid the top button of her shirt, pulling the left side away from her body. As the cloth moved, the glowing blue Reactor was revealed, implanted in her chest, just above her heart. Robotnik could do little but stare at it. He'd heard about it before, of course, but words couldn't compare to reality. It was incredible.

"It's working," said Samus, "I'm still alive. That's proof enough. Might need to look at it when I get home. This one's pretty crude."

Sighing, Robotnik put a hand on her shoulder. "Look, Sammy," he responded, "I might be willing to give this whole non weapons thing a try. We can work through it together. Your dad and I got out of much worse corporate crap than this."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you, Eggman," said Samus, sincerely for once, "But you know you would've stopped me."

Robotnik was forced to concede she had a point on that front. He still wasn't sold on abandoning weapons manufacturing, but Samus was the CEO, and the daughter of his deceased best friend. "I'll go out to the board. See if I can talk them into it. But I want you to stay out of the spotlight for a few days, maybe a week, alright? The press is gonna be gunning for us even more than usual after today."

Samus disliked the idea of dropping off the face of the Earth for a while. After all, she didn't care as much about the bad publicity, and once Aran International had moved into new technologies, everyone would forget what she'd done. Then again, maybe it'd be good to give people time to process. Besides, she had a project to work on.

"Okay," she agreed, "Can I throw a coming back party?"

"No."

* * *

 **Samus' House, the Next Day**

"It's unbelievable. She clearly left her mind somewhere back in Zebes. You wanna talk about rats leaving a sinking ship? That'll be Aran International's stockholders in the next couple of days."

"I know, right? All this, coming from the daughter of Rodney Aran. I'm starting to wonder how much of an airhead-"

Olimar muted the T.V. after that. He didn't think he could listen to any more without breaking it in irritation.

Olimar had always supported Samus in her decisions, especially the tough ones. Naturally, being a CEO forced her into a lot of places where she struggled to keep her head above the water. Most of the time, Olimar was willing to act as her personal idea board and advisor. However, in this case, he wasn't too sure. Samus sounded like she was sincere, and actually wanted to help the world. Then again, this seemed like it could be a trauma-induced direction, and under that kind of stress, nobody would be stable. Not even Samus.

This was the day after the conference. Samus was busy working on something down in the basement, as usual, and Olimar had spent a couple of hours convincing the reporters to go away, because Miss Aran would not be commenting further at this time. He was currently watching the coverage of various talk shows, almost none of whom were positive.

He was interrupted in his brooding by his phone ringing. Looking at the caller I. D., he noticed it was Samus reaching out to him. Curious as to why she didn't just come upstairs, he hit the answer button.

"Samus? What's going on?"

"Get down here," she replied, "Your hands are smaller than mine." Then she hung up.

Trying to ignore the unfortunate implications of that statement, Olimar walked downstairs, opening the glass door with the pass code. What greeted him was Samus leaning back on a chair, with her shirt removed, leaving her in a sports bra. Several chords led from her body to a heart monitor that steadily beeped. In her hands, she held another miniature Aurora Unit Reactor, seemingly identical to the one in her chest. The only difference is that this one seemed to glow a little brighter.

"Um, why do you have two reactors?" asked Olimar nervously.

"See, the one I have currently was made with inferior materials," said Samus, poking the device above her heart, "So I've been making a newer, better one that should last much longer. There's just one problem with this, and I kinda need your help." She grabbed the device in her chest, gave it a twist to loosen it, and pulled it out, unplugging it in the process. She handed it to Olimar, "Here, just put this down somewhere."

"O-okay," he replied, putting the reactor down on the table.

"Now, there's an exposed wire that could possibly cause a short circuit," Samus continued, "Or something like that, I'm not really sure. If you could just reach in and pull that out, please. I don't need it to stay alive." This was all said very nonchalantly, as though people pulling wires out of other people's chests was the norm.

Olimar just stared. "Is this...safe?" he asked, "I really think you should be getting a professional to look at this..."

Samus laughed. "What, there are professionals for things like this?" she asked, "Come on, you're capable, you can do this easy."

"No, I really shouldn't."

"All you have to do is pull out the wire."

"...I don't want to."

"Pull out the frickin' wire!"

"Okay! Fine!" snapped Olimar. He slowly inserted his hand into the metal shaft in Samus' chest. A gooey squishing sound was heard, and he felt a wet, gel like substance on his hand. Whatever he was touching, it expelled a putrid scent that made him plug his nose with his free hand. "Uh...do wanna explain...?"

"Discharge...from the device," Samus casually responded.

"Oh, sure," said Olimar.

Eventually, Olimar's hand reached the wire. He gently pulled on it, exposing the long metal strip to the air. The thing was thinner than a single hair.

"Now," said Samus, "Just pull that out, but don't yank-"

She was cut off but a metallic click as the wire came out fully, showing the tip. On the end of it, a metal circular device was entangled, also covered in the discharge from the reactor. The heart monitor switched to a steady sound, signaling a flat line.

"Oh...was that supposed to happen?" asked Olimar.

"No...you pulled out the magnet, now I'm gonna have a heart attack," said Samus, her voice sounding constricted.

"What?!" shouted Olimar, "You said this was safe!"

"Calm down," said Samus, straining with every word, "Just get the...wire off, drop it...back onto the base...plate." Olimar hurried to obey, almost tearing the wire in frustration. He dropped the magnet back in, where it landed with a clang. "Good, now just...put in the.. new one. Clip it...on the base." She handed it to him.

"Okay, Samus," Olimar said, "It's gonna be fine, you are going to be fine."

"This isn't...major surgery, just...do it," Samus tried to snap back. Olimar stuck the cord of the reactor down into the shaft, clipping it on. A thump was followed by an electrical hum, and Samus shouted "Oooh, yeah!" as her heart started pumping again. The monitor resumed it's steady bleeps in response. She pushed the reactor the rest of the way into her chest, turning it with a click.

She hopped off the chair, good as new, yanking off the suction tipped cables. "See, that wasn't so bad!" she cheered, slapping Olimar on the shoulder.

The smaller man gave her the death glare, while simultaneously trying not to laugh. "I am never doing that again, as long as I live," he responded.

"What if I need you?" asked Samus. It was a perfectly innocent question, but it carried a lot more implications than expected. After all, Olimar had worked for Samus for years, and was probably the person closest to her. As they both processed these facts, they both smiled warmly.

Olimar picked up the original Aurora Unit Reactor off the table. "So, what do you want to do with this?" he asked.

Samus shrugged. "Meh, just melt it down, or something. I have no interest in becoming a hoarder," she answered. She walked over to her personal work desk, where one of her personal robot appendages on wheels was sitting. "Hey Dummy! Why is all this junk still here? Why didn't you get rid of this old photo album Mom made?"

Laughing, Olimar took the old reactor, and went back to his own work.

* * *

 **Zebes Desert**

Despite the fact that they had spent their whole lives in the harshly hot climate of the country, the Space Pirates didn't particularly enjoy staying outside. The sun was unbearably hot, and their scales heated up over time, making it possible to burn themselves just by touching their own hides. However, they were staying out here anyway, as they had things to dig up. Specifically, pieces of metal armor that had scattered around upon impact.

One lucky pirate noticed a tiny sliver of metal sticking out of the ground. Rushing over, he began pushing away the sand with his claws, eventually grabbing the metal object by one side. Pulling, he lifted out an iron face plate, allowing the sand to slip out from the rectangular opening that served as one single eye hole. The pirate roared out in his native tongue, calling his leader.

Off in the distance, Weavel turned around at the call of his name. The back of his head was covered in burns, and the rest wasn't in much better shape. His face had been damaged by rock scratches, and his horns had all broken off. His scales had numerous cracks running down them, exposing his sensitive skin to the sun. However, he didn't care if he burned himself out here, because getting that armor was the most important objective.

Walking over to his henchman, he was presented with the metal face plate, which he immediately recognized. Holding it in his hand, a smile formed on his reptilian face. This would be the beginning.

* * *

 **Malibu**

On her personal computer, Samus was busy reconstructing the blueprints of her armor. She didn't have a photographic memory, but after all the work that had gone into making that thing, as well as the results, she doubted she would forget anytime soon. After completing the blueprints of the suit, she dragged it across the screen in the direction of the nearby table, which functioned as a holoprojector. Soon, Samus had a 3-D model of the armor presented before her.

"Adam? You still awake?" she called out.

"You know I don't sleep, lady," responded the AI, displaying his usual sarcasm.

"Good work ethic," responded the woman, "Open a new file on my private server. Title it Mark 2."

"Are you sneaking around behind your own company's back again?" asked Adam.

"I don't want them getting their hands on this, at least not yet," Samus responded, "This thing needs to be preserved." As she studied the suit, Samus pressed another button, bringing up a holographic trash can. Looking at the armor, Samus first removed the motor, as there would be no need for it with her technology. She also got rid of the fuel tank, as it had been very heavy, and had slowed her down considerably. Looking at the arms, Samus thought back to the escape, noticing how two cannons had been a bit of a pain. It was unnecessarily difficult to grab things, even with the openings for her fingers. Since she was left handed, she decided it would be more useful to keep that hand free. Her right arm was steady enough to shoot, and she would make it so the cannon could convert to a normal gauntlet anyway. She dragged the left arm cannon off, tossing it into the trash. Studying the result, she grinned. "I've got a lot of work to do."

* * *

 ***Remember, this movie was released in 2008. The iPhone was out by then.**


	6. Chapter 6: How Not to Build a Power Suit

**Here's chapter six. We're about halfway through the movie by now, and we're getting into the funny parts. Yay for bad comedy!**

* * *

Chapter 6: How Not to Build a Suit of High-Tech Battle Armor

"So, you're sure you're in good shape? I honestly thought you'd be in bed for a couple of days," asked Anthony. He had called Samus up a few days following the press conference, and he couldn't keep the worried tone out of his voice. For someone like Samus, her experience in Zebes was earth-shattering, and far more traumatic than anything she'd previously lived through.

"Definitely. I'm working on a new project, and it's gonna blow your mind," responded Samus with a grin.

Anthony breathed a sigh of relief. "I knew that whole announcement was a publicity stunt! You're back in the game already!"

Samus frowned. "Anthony, this isn't a military thing. It's an entirely different-"

"Oh, God, you're serious," said Anthony, cutting her off, "Look, Sammy, I honestly don't think you're in your right mind now. You need to rest it off, or something. Come on, this isn't you."

Samus was quiet for a moment. Out of everyone she knew, she was confidant that Anthony would understand her new position the best. She hadn't expected him to side with the others. Then again, nobody else had seen just how badly her weapons had failed, and the ruin they had brought to innocent people. Their disapproval most likely came from the idea that she was abandoning the United States. It didn't matter, though. Eventually, they'd all see how she was right.

"Yeah..." she eventually said, "I'll just get some rest." It was best to try and placate him for now.

"Good..." said Anthony, "Take care of yourself." He hung up.

Samus sighed, put down her phone, and returned to work on the armor.

* * *

The outer armor of the suit was easy enough to design. Building it was even easier, as she didn't have to do any of it by hand. All she had to do was program the blueprints into her computers, and leave the machines do it. Certain parts had to be completed at the factory, but thankfully, they weren't devices that would make anybody suspicious. In the meantime, Samus herself worked on specific features of the suit.

Over the past couple of days, Samus had spent a lot of time considering how to get the rocket boots that failed on the first armor to actually work. Then again, maybe it hadn't been the boots themselves that failed, but the armor and the reactor. As she already knew, the first armor had proved useful, but too heavy. The old reactor was relatively inefficient, which made sense considering the materials. The new one, on the other hand, could easily generate enough power to keep her airborne for at least a couple of hours.

Or, that would be the case, if she could get the damn boots finished. At the moment, she was trying to solder the circuits of the first new jet boot together, while Dummy held a magnifying glass to help her see. Of course, the dimwitted appendage was screwing this up consistently, wobbling around like it was high. Seriously, how did a robot get this shaky?

"That one's done. Up a little higher, so I can get the next one," she ordered, "No, that's too high. You are looking down into the boot. Go back down. No, that's too far! You're killing me, Dummy.*" The robot swerved, knocking the solder iron out of her hand. She turned to stare it down, which was made difficult by the fact that it didn't really have a face. "You are a pain in my ass." She picked up the iron again, setting it down.

"Okay, let's try this," she said, as she grabbed the robot limb, positioning the magnifying glass directly over the circuit she needed to do, "Can you stay right there? Don't nod." The robot made a whirring sound, which Samus interpreted as a yes. "Good boy." She went back to soldering.

Thankfully, that was the last circuit on that particular boot. Samus pulled it off the table, slipping her foot into it just to be sure she hadn't messed up the measurements. The boot collapsed on her leg perfectly, holding on tight. Samus lifted up her leg, making sure the boot wasn't too heavy.

"Awesome. Now we just have one entire boot to do," said Samus, with a mixture of joy, and frustration over the fact that she wanted to toss Dummy in an incinerator. Dummy whirred in agreement. He was kind of stupid like that.

* * *

Eventually, after much blood, sweat, and tears, the second boot was complete. It was a simple matter for Samus to construct a hand trigger that would activate the boots. All that remained, unfortunately, was to test them. Of course, Samus, being Samus, was almost excited by the prospect.

A square, metallic floor mat was set up to give her a specific area to fly around. She held the trigger for the jet boots in her left hand, and wires ran from her reactor to the boots. In order to keep track of her progress, one of her robot appendages on wheels was equipped with a movie camera, focused on her. Dummy, in yet another attempt to make him useful, was armed with a fire extinguisher, in case the boots exploded or something. Not likely, given Samus' skill level, but better safe than sorry.

"Okay," she said, walking into the middle of the mat and turning to the camera, "This is Samus Aran, jet boots, first test. Dummy is on fire safety, and, uh...Pyonchi** is on film duty." She bent her knees, trying to make sure the propulsion didn't lock her legs. "We're gonna bring the thrust capacity up to...ten percent. See if that's enough to achieve liftoff. We are go in three... two...one...and ignition." She gently clicked the hand triggers.

And the resulting thrust sent her flying upwards into the overhanging wall.

Dummy pointed the fire extinguisher at the fallen woman and sprayed. Samus groaned, and it wasn't from the pain.

* * *

Okay, so the boots were stronger than she'd initially calculated. That wasn't a problem. All she had to do was tone it down a little bit. After her head stopped throbbing, Samus set up everything, and decided to try again.

"Samus Aran, jet boot testing, take two. Dummy, unfortunately, is still on fire safety," she spoke into the camera, "This time, we're gonna take the thrust down a notch. Let's try five percent capacity. Here we go...three, two, one."

She clicked the triggers, a lot more gently this time. The boots fired up, and Samus was lifted about three meters into the air. Samus hovered for a few moments, fairly stable. But then she made the crucial mistake of compressing her ankles.

Ideally, the force of the jets would push her back, but not too fast. In reality, she went flying backwards, slamming into one of her work tables, sending tools flying everywhere. Screeching, Samus released the triggers, deactivating the jets, and sending her falling onto her butt.

As if her day wasn't complete, Dummy came zooming over to her, spraying Samus with white extinguisher foam. It took all of Samus' willpower to not grab the nearby sledgehammer.

* * *

After that disaster, Samus went back to the drawing board. Clearly, the jet propulsion from the boots was still stronger than expected, but there was another problem. The propulsion was only coming from the boots, and wasn't evenly distributed around her body. As a result, it threw her off, making it difficult for her to fly straight. She needed some other source of jet propulsion, and she had an idea.

For years, Samus had been hoping to invent the world's first jetpack. Back in her weapons development days, the theory was that paratroopers could use them to descend, and possibly return to aircrafts. However, over time, it had been buried under other projects, and besides, Eggman would've called it stupid. Thankfully, she'd kept a lot of the designs, and it was simple to adapt earlier ones into her armor components.

It took a couple of days, but she eventually settled on a model that would work. It took only a few hours to fit together a prototype. The device didn't resemble the stereotypical jetpack, but was more styled after a tank top. It covered to top half of her torso, and she realized it would be a good connection point to her Aurora Unit Reactor for the full armor. The two jet barrels were attached to the back of the device, but pointed slightly outward so the flames wouldn't burn her back.

As Samus was busy attaching the new apparatus, Olimar came down the stairs, opening the door with the pass code. He walked into her workshop, with a newspaper and a package wrapped in brown paper. His expression didn't change when he saw her activities. After all, Samus was always doing some crazy stuff down here.

"Oh, hey man," she called out, as she clipped her new jet boosters to her body, "What's going on?"

"Robotnik's upstairs. He wants to talk about the meeting with the board," responded her assistant, putting the package and the paper down on the table.

"Good. Tell him I'll be up in a minute," said Samus, standing up straight.

"What's the new doohickey?" asked Olimar, looking perplexed, "Jetpacks? Really?"

"It's not a jetpack. It's designed to stabilize-"

Samus was cut off as she accidentally activated the thrusters. Red flames burst from the barrels, sending her flying forward across the workshop. Samus slammed headfirst into Dummy, sending him spinning around and flying into a wall. Samus managed to stop the boosters, but not before she thumped against the wall. Olimar could only stare in surprise at his boss's...incident.

"I'm beginning to get a slight headache..." grumbled Samus.

* * *

After taking off the chest apparatus, Samus came upstairs to see Robotnik. At the moment, he was sitting at her piano, playing a pleasant melody, or trying to. He had been trying to take it up as hobby, but this was just another instance in which Samus wished she had the heart to suggest he try singing instead. Actually, scratch that. That would be way, way worse. She marched over to the table where Olimar sat, popping open the nearby pizza box and grabbing a piece.

"So, how'd the board meeting go?" asked Samus. Robotnik played a few more low notes, which would typically appear in a theater tragedy. "Is that Hamlet ending level bad, or ending that was supposed to be tragic, but actually came across as hilarious bad?"

"What do you think?" asked Robotnik, "It didn't help that you've made no attempt to provide any new ideas for the company."

"Oh, come on, Eggy! I've been working down here. I don't just poop out new ideas," Samus protested, "What more do they want?"

"They want to keep you out of company decisions. They're filing an injunction, based on the idea that you're suffering from post-traumatic stress."

Samus turned to Robotnik, looking shocked. "Post-traumatic stress? Are you freaking kidding me? I'm trying to save people, and they think I'm not mentally competent?" She couldn't believe it. Surely, the board had heard about how Aran International weapons had been obtained by terrorists. They couldn't ignore that. They were sending the message that they didn't care about the deaths of their own country's soldiers, or anyone else.

"Well, our stock fell about fifty-seven percent..." said Olimar.

Samus rounded on him. "It doesn't matter, we own the controlling interest. The company is still standing." Olimar said nothing. He wanted to side with her, but sometimes, it looked like she was throwing the company down the drain.

"Samus," responded Robotnik, calmly, "They're doing their job, which is to keep Aran International functional. They are concerned that you're not acting in the company's best interests. You know what people are calling this? The blunder of the century." He hated to tell her this, but he thought it was for her own good. In his eyes, Samus simply didn't realize what she was doing.

Unfortunately for Robotnik, it had the opposite of its intended effect. Basically, all it did was annoy Samus further. "Who's calling it that, Ivo? The tabloid?" she snapped, "Or the people who think I'm sleeping with Charlie Sheen?"

"Sammy, come on. I'm trying to help you," pleaded Robotnik.

"Yeah, and I'm trying to be responsible for once in my life," Samus responded, "I'm making this company better, so we actually help people." She noticed Robotnik still looked doubtful. Turning to Olimar, she was dismayed to see that he had a similar expression on his face. "Oh, for Pete's sake." She grabbed the pizza box. "I'm gonna go back to work."

"Sammy," Robotnik interrupted, following her, "I need something to sway 'em." He pointed to the reactor in her chest. "How about that? Maybe if we analyze it, see what we could do with it-"

"No, no, absolutely not," Samus responded firmly. She genuinely believed the reactor could be a viable alternative energy source, and a good project to focus the company on. However, she had no desire to let anyone else have access to the miniature model. If someone else figured out how to power battle suits like she did, it could be a disaster. "I'm keeping this one," she continued, "I'll come up with something else."

"Well, then I'm keeping this one," Robotnik snapped, grabbing the pizza, "You can have another piece. Two, even." Samus, being Samus, took three. Hey, building suits of powered battle armor makes people hungry. "Can I come down and see what you're working on?"

"Good night, Eggy," said Samus, her mouth full of pizza.

Robotnik just stared after her. Olimar shrugged his shoulders.

* * *

With the new back jet apparatus attached firmly to her back, Samus moved the testing area over to the garage. That way, if it failed again, she wouldn't slam into as many things.

"Pyonchi? Action." The robot whirred as it started the camera. "Samus Aran again, test number, uh...forty-one. New configuration. Dummy is still on fire safety, due to lack of better options," she spoke into the camera. She turned to the extinguisher wielding robot. "If you spray me again, and I'm not on fire, I will personally dismantle you, and sell the pieces to Radio Shack, so help me God." The robot whirred in understanding.

Samus stepped into the middle of the floor mat. "This time, we're gonna take it nice and slow. Let's start with...one percent thrust," she said, trying not to sound panicky, "We're good to go in three, two, one."

She activated the jets, igniting both the boots and the pack. Samus Aran was lifted just a few feet into the air, hovering over the ground. She moved her limbs experimentally, testing to see whether or not she could still send herself flying. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case, as she had to make an effort to move in any direction. She was still a little wobbly, which made sense, as it was only the first time she was flying properly. After a few seconds, she deactivated the boots, dropping back onto the floor. Satisfied, she turned to Dummy, who was still pointing the extinguisher at her.

"Please don't track me with it. You're making me feel like I'm going to spontaneously combust," Samus ordered. Dummy immediately lowered the nozzle. "Good. Just stay there. If I catch on fire, then point it at me." She braced her legs again. The jets seemed to be working, and she saw no reason not to make a second test. "I'm gonna bring the thrust up to two point five. Three, two, one, fire."

The jets ignited once more, and Samus was elevated off the ground again, a bit higher. Floating smoothly, she decided to try to move around. She bent down a bit, allowing the jets on her back to push her forward. She flew around to the edge of the room, then guided herself towards the back wall. But she flew a bit faster than she'd anticipated, and had to wave her arms to avoid crashing into the wall. Her feet were angled towards the wall, and she went flying across the garage again, right over her row of cars.

"Oh, no, not the car, not the car-Oh, that was my Impala!" Samus whined, as the rockets left burn marks on top of her precious automobiles. Thankfully, it didn't look like anything that wouldn't buff out. Eventually, she reached one of her work desks, covered in documents she had ignored for a while. Samus compressed her ankles to avoid flying over it, and managed to force herself backwards. The force of the jets sent a few papers flying, but that didn't matter.

Turning around, Samus let out a whoop as she zoomed across the room again. Bending her knees, Samus cheered as she assumed a position that made it look like she was on an invisible hover board. "I'm awesome!" she shouted as she hovered over the floor mat again. After a few seconds, she deactivated the boots and the pack, landing on both feet safely. She stumbled a backwards for a few steps, but managed to regain her balance.

Turning to Dummy, she noticed he was raising the extinguisher nozzle again, and frantically raised her hand. "N-ah, ah, ah!" she stammered. Thankfully, Dummy got the idea, and lowered his arm.

Samus relaxed. "I can fly," she said calmly to herself, "I rule!"

* * *

While Samus had been working on the jets, production of the armor had gone smoothly. With the propulsion systems complete, it was finally time to test the entire product. Samus activated her home's robotic systems, and mechanical arms emerged from opening panels in the walls and ceiling, carrying pieces of silver metal. Arms placed metal plating over her jet boots, which unfolded and covered her legs completely. Similar plating enclosed her upper torso, and the jetpack. The rest of her abdomen was protected by smooth metal that was collapsed by bolts, along with her left arm. An arm carried a long black cannon, which Samus fitted her right arm through up to her elbow, grabbing the control handle inside. More drills attached the cannon to the rest of the suit. Samus grabbed the helmet, and fitted it on her head, standing there in her complete armor.

The suit was composed of bright silver iron, with a bright blue circle over her heart, where the reactor was. Blue lights glowed on the legs and chest area, and orange ones were on the barrel of the arm cannon. The chest armor stuck out above her shoulders, pointing to either side of her. The helmet was a simple, head enclosing egg shape, while the visor took up most of the room on the front. It stretched up almost to the top of the helmet in an oval shape, with a small, round indent near the top. The visor glowed bright blue, with two smaller white lights inside, indicating where Samus' eyes were.***

"Adam, you make it in okay?" asked Samus. She had decided to connect the A. I. to the suit, rather than install a quiet, onboard computer. Adam was perfectly capable, and if she was gonna be saving the world, she needed somebody to talk to inside the suit, or she'd definitely go crazy.

"As always, lady," replied Adam.

"Activate heads-up display," said Samus. Instantly, the visor of the suit lit up, displaying her power reserves, armor integrity, and multiple other details of the suit's functions. "Looking good. Can we get a system's check and diagnostics?"

"With pleasure, lady," responded Adam. Various pieces of her armor shifted, as Adam scanned all systems. Thankfully, nothing seemed like it was going to break off. "All systems are functional. Preparing to power down and disassemble-"

"Actually, do a weather check," said Samus, "Keep an eye on ground control. I wanna take this baby for a spin."

"Lady, with all due respect, before actually flying this thing, many, many calculations need to be-"

"You know what? Screw the rules." Samus activated the jets.

Flames burst from her boots and back, lifting her off the ground. Leaning forward, Samus increased the thrust power, sending herself flying towards her car tunnel, picking up speed as she did so. As she rounded the corner, Samus cheered with adrenaline as she went flying out of the tunnel like a missile into the California night.

"I AM AWESOME!" screamed Samus, as she spiraled through the air. She straightened herself out, increasing her altitude a bit before flying over the city. She knew it was a gigantic risk to try and fly the suit now, but this experience made it completely worth it. Samus had gotten a taste of this adrenaline and feeling briefly in the Mark I, but it was nothing compared to this. The exhilaration was penetrating every cell in her body, and she felt better than she had in years.

Looking down over the city, Samus' enhanced lenses zoomed in on the ground, noticing a few people pointing. One boy in a red cap pointed her out to his father, who ignored it at first, but eventually looked skyward, spilling his drink all over his shirt in the process. Beneath the helmet, Samus grinned. She wondered if she'd made the news yet.

Speaking of skyward, Samus turned her eyes up, looking into the black expanse of the sky. Turning her body, she flew straight up, sailing through multiple clouds, leaving traces of moisture on the armor. "Time for a real test. What's the record altitude for AR-64?" she asked.

"25908 meters. Lady, you can't seriously be thinking..." said Adam, concern in his robotic voice.

"Time to make the Guinness book!" cheered Samus, as she climbed higher and higher. With her suit's oxygen supply, breathing wouldn't be a problem. However, the higher she went, the colder it got. The moisture left on her armor started to freeze, causing ice to spread across her visor.

"Lady, the suit is icing up. It's wrecking havoc on all systems," insisted Adam, noticeably trying to sound calm. In case she'd gone deaf, a large, red warning sign appeared on her heads-up display. Her chest reactor began to flicker as more and more ice covered the suit.

"Keep going!" Samus shouted in response. She could feel the massive temperature drop through the armor, but it didn't matter. She was going to test the very limits of this creation, and prove it was her crowning achievement.

Then, the ice froze over her jets, which clicked off with a pop, and her helmet's lights flickered and faded. Then she started to fall.

Samus shouted, more out of surprise than fear, as she plummeted towards the ground. Maybe this hadn't been her best idea. Her armor wouldn't protect her from a fall this high. "Adam! Open the flaps!" she shouted. There was no answer. "Adam?! Don't you go to sleep on me now!"

Adam was clearly out of commission, so she had to do this herself before she hit the ground. The ice was shedding off in pieces as she dropped, but it wouldn't be enough. She scrapped the ice off her leg with her left hand, freeing a circular switch. She grabbed it and twisted, popping open the flaps on the jetpack portion of the suit, and cracking a large portion of the ice. Her heads-up display flared to life, and her rockets reactivated just as she reached the level off the tall buildings.

Samus whooped and cheered as she went flying across the sky once again. She zipped down to the street and did a triple spin, before zooming back up above the buildings once more. Deciding she'd had enough jet flying action for one day, Samus changed direction and flew back to her house. She zoomed above it, and hovered over the roof. "Deactivate," she told Adam.

Adam did so, and Samus smashed through the roof, cleaved her piano in half, and slammed into her sports car. Dummy pointed his extinguisher nozzle at her limp form and sprayed again.

Inside the armor, Samus leaned back and moaned.

* * *

Holding an ice pack to her head, Samus walked through her lab after shedding and storing the armor. So much for no more injuries. She'd failed to take into account just how heavy that thing was. It didn't really matter in the long run, though. She already had ideas on how to improve it. After all, it wouldn't be a great invention if she couldn't continue to upgrade it.

On her way to her computer, Samus noticed the brown paper wrapped package Olimar had left on the table. Curious, she picked it up and began to tear off the paper. Eventually, the item inside was revealed to be her original Aurora Unit Reactor, mounted and inside a glass case. It was surrounded by a metal ring, engraved with the words "Evidence of Samus Aran's heart."

Samus smiled a genuinely warm smile. Olimar may have disagreed with her over the company decisions, but he understood she was trying to be a better person. He saw no fault in that. She felt a pulse of affection for the little man, who she had always trusted and appreciated. Thoughts of Olimar brought up her other best friend in her mind, and she made a mental note to call Anthony.

Placing the case on her desk, she went over to her computers, bringing up Adam and the diagnostics of her armor. She turned on the audio recorder. "Samus Aran, first flight notes. At high altitudes, icing interferes with propulsion systems. High pressurization also seems to impair functioning."

"I didn't think you noticed," responded Adam, "The exosystems aren't exactly fit for interstellar travel."

Samus ignored the snark. "Also, size of vision port induces risk of being blinded, as well as vulnerability. Connect to the server at the factory, and reconfigure the parts, replacing the iron with the gold-titanium alloy to ensure fuselage stability. Replace the visor with the triangular design I thought up. And throw some extra plating on the shoulders," she ordered, "Show me the render."

"Yes, lady," agreed Adam.

Bored at the moment, Samus switched on the T.V. to see if her little joyride had been enough to for someone to scream UFO. Unfortunately, the main story seemed to be another red carpet event. The reporter, a short man with a wide afro of green hair, was currently speaking. "...at the Valve concert hall, where the high society of Los Angeles mingles at Samus Aran's benefit for the Wounded Veteran's fund."

Samus realized she'd forgotten all about that event. "Hey Adam?" she called "Did I ever get invited to that?"

"No," responded Adam simply.

The reporter continued, "Miss Aran herself hasn't been seen in public since her press conference ending Aran International's weapons production, leading to controversy and falling of Aran International's stock prices. Unconfirmed reports claim Aran is suffering from post-traumatic stress, and has become unable to function in society, forcing her to stay away from the public until she regains her lucidity. This reporter, for one, thinks she won't be breaking that cycle tonight."

Samus groaned for the second time that day. Maybe disappearing off the face of the earth hadn't been the best idea. If everyone kept thinking she'd lost her mind, she wasn't likely to stay in control of her company. Maybe she should take a break from this whole armor thing to fix that situation.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Adam reporting that the render for the Mark III suit had been completed. She turned to the screen, and was greeted by the sight of an entirely gold suit. The visor had been reduced to a triangular panel covering the lower half of the helmet. The pointy tips of the shoulders had been replaced with spherical covering, looking a bit sturdier.

"I don't know," she said, "All gold is a bit pretentious, don't you think?"

"Oh, and everyone knows you've never been arrogant in your life," responded Adam.

Ignoring her computer's joke again, Samus looked more at the suit. Clearly, something was missing, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Then, she looked over at her cars, and got an idea. "Hot-rod red," she realized, smiling, "Paint it red."

"Real subtle," responded Adam, but he nonetheless followed her order. The final projection of the Mark III armor was almost completely red, with the exception of the blue visor, and the gold remaining on her lower torso, and on the inside of her thighs.****

Samus grinned. "Perfect," she told the A. I., "Get to work on that suit."

"Beginning construction on Mark III," replied Adam, "Approximate time required: five hours."

With that taken care of, Samus grabbed her car keys. If everyone thought she was going crazy, tonight was as good as any other to prove them wrong.

* * *

 ***Copyright notice: I stole this from my old Driver's Ed teacher.**

 ****This is another reference to the Metroid Manga.**

 *****To get an idea of the Mark II's design, imagine the original Power Suit, without the larger shoulders from the Varia, except it's all silver, and the visor is like the Galactic Federation Troops from Other M.**

 ******This one is the Other M suit, except the orange is replaced with red. I thought it seemed a little bit lighter and less armored than, say, the Metroid Prime Varia suit, so this one comes first.**


	7. Chapter 7: Iron Woman's debut

**Guest Reviewer: Yeah, I toyed with the idea of not having Samus be Tony Stark. I considered having, say, Captain Falcon in her armor as Iron Man, and Samus could be Black Widow (Or, with a couple of adjustments, she could even be Captain America), but decided against it. I know that she's not really in character, but that happens in stories like these, and I thought she deserved to wear her trademark suit. Plus, I couldn't think of anyone with Tony's personality. Pepper was the hardest character to recast, because nobody seemed to fit the bill. I eventually settled on Olimar after going over his personality. He's quiet, and not the strongest emotionally, but he has guts when he needs to. You'd need those to go to the Pikmin Planet three times. I never thought of the Ant Man idea, though. Maybe I could throw Alph in there.**

* * *

Chapter 7: Iron Woman's Debut

Normally, Samus hated getting dressed up. If she absolutely had to, she'd usually go with a suit. She'd always thought dresses looked stupid on her, and cared very little about looking pretty. However, tonight, she decided to make an exception. After all, she was appearing in public for the first time since the conference, and she wanted people to realize she wasn't falling apart. She might as well look good.

For this outing, Samus chose a simple, long black dress that almost reached her ankles. She went with very little makeup, as she'd never cared for the stuff. Before leaving, she remembered to slip a flesh covered pad over the top of her Aurora Unit Reactor. Nobody should see that in public. At least not yet. Then she hoped in her shiny silver Acura NSX, and drove to the Valve center.

Unsurprisingly, her arrival on the scene brought a lot of the attention onto her. Photographers immediately snapped to catch her. Thankfully, the reporters didn't seem as aggressive tonight.

As she walked down the carpet, a tall man with brown hair parted to the left side of his face called to her, "Samus! Hey Samus! Remember me?"

Samus turned to him. "Yeah," she responded, "I paid you to clean out the septic tank." She chuckled as she walked away, leaving the man staring after her.

A bit further on, Samus located the person she'd been looking for. Robotnik, dressed in his usual suit, was giving an interview at the moment. "Aran International cares about the people," he said into the microphone, "That's why we throw these fundraisers. Weapons sales aren't our only concern..." his voice trailed off as he noticed all the photographers turned around. He followed their gaze to see Samus herself, coming up the steps.

"Crashing a party with my name on it," she said, cheerfully, "That's one for the record books, eh, Eggman?"

Robotnik turned to the reporter, and said, "We'll finish this later." He returned to Samus, "Hey, Sammy, I didn't expect to see you here tonight." He leaned in so nobody could listen in. "You're not making any big statements tonight or anything, right? I'm making some progress with the board, but this could give them more ammunition..."

"Don't worry," said Samus, "I just got bored with being in the house the whole time. Cramped up. Wanted to get out." She was being honest. Now wasn't the time to make any major moves on her public image. She hoped that the simple fact she was out in the open would shut the rumor mills up.

"Okay, good," responded Robotnik. He ushered her into the doors, "Go on, have some fun."

Samus walked up to the bar first thing. She was no alcoholic, but it wasn't a party without alcohol. "Gimme a whiskey," she told the bartender. As she grabbed the drink, she was distracted by a tap on her shoulder. Turning, she was met with the sight of a brown anthropomorphic fox.

"Miss Aran?" he asked, stretching out his hand, "Agent Fox McCloud. You remember me?"

"Oh, yeah," she said, "You were at the press conference. You're with the...the..."

"State of Attack and Fear Elimination," he finished.

Samus took a drink. "You really need to get that title changed. It's a mouthful," she said.

Fox scratched his ear uncomfortably. "Yeah, we're working on that," he answered, "Listen, we really need to get some information from you regarding your captivity. I know this must be a trying time for you, but we won't be a huge inconvenience. Would you be willing to set up a meeting on the thirty-first at Aran International, at seven P. M.? Two days from now?"

He kept talking, because he'd lost Samus' attention at some point. She was currently focused on a sight across the room, which turned out to be Olimar. She'd never seen him dress up in her life, but he looked rather impressive. His suit was a dark red, and what little hair he had was carefully combed, making the most of it. He was sitting at a table, drinking a clear liquid, talking with some other people. Samus absentmindedly held her hand out to Fox.

"Great idea," she said, not paying attention, "You're right. You're absolutely right. You're a genius. I'm gonna go over to my assistant, we'll figure something out." She went across the room to Olimar. Fox stared after her for a moment, then shrugged his shoulder and walked off.

"I didn't think parties were your thing," she said, as she sat down next to him, taking another sip of her drink, "Nice suit."

Olimar turned to her, looking surprised. "What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Having some fun," she said, leaning back. Olimar seemed to be glancing around with a nervous expression. "Are you uncomfortable?"

"Oh, no," he answered, "There's absolutely nothing abnormal about hanging out with my boss, in front of tons of my colleagues, drinking, in a suit most people remember Ricky Gervais wearing at the Golden Globes."

"Relax, you look fine," she said, patting his shoulder, "If you want, I think I got a spare pink slip in the car."

"Like you'd fire me," said Olimar, "Remember how the guy before me threatened to blow up your house with a combustible lemon?"

Samus chuckled. "Fair enough. Wanna go dance?" She wasn't getting drunk enough to do all of this without proper judgement. She genuinely liked Olimar, and she'd realized she hadn't spent a lot of time getting to know him. However, upon this suggestion, he immediately began shaking his head like bobble head.

"Never. Not ever. No way. Uh-uh. N. O." replied Olimar, "You're like a foot taller than me!"

"Come on, that's not a big deal!"

"I'm not doing it!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

So they decided to simply sit together. After a few moments of hostile silence, they eventually began talking. Mostly about mundane topics, such as the company, the work they'd been doing, and how Robotnik had managed to go bald at such a young age. This dissolved into laughter, and they had an arm around each other's shoulders. Olimar, however, still had the hint of awkwardness, and felt every pair of eyes that even slightly passed over them.

"Let's go outside," he said to Samus, "I need...fresh air."

"O-okay, sure," she agreed. She would normally have argued, but she could see how he'd become visibly embarrassed.

* * *

"That was too weird..."

"Oh, it was not..."

"Yes it was, we were hanging out, people were looking..."

Samus shrugged. "They barely glanced at us, nobody's gonna remember this," she argued.

Olimar threw his hands up in the air. "Yes! Yes they will!" he protested, "They'll remember it, and they'll talk about it..."

"I've done much worse things in public than that! I've done it plenty of times, and nobody cared!" Samus countered.

"Because you're you!" snapped Olimar, "And everybody knows who you are, and what you do with certain men, and what you did with the guys on the New Zealand Male Firefighters Calendar, which is fine, you can make your own choices..."

"Hey, that was a secret!"

"But then, you're hanging with me, and I work for you, and a lot of people already think I suck at my job..." Olimar continued, somehow managing to not take a breath.

"That's not true," said Samus, "You're the President of Smashing. That's gotta count for something, right?"*

Olimar gave her the evil eye. "One, this isn't that universe. Two, I take the role of frickin' Cornelius Fudge. That guy's inept!"

"Whatever," said Samus, "I just think it's not that big of a deal."

"It is! And I'm wearing this stupid suit, and..." he paused as he finally ran out of breath. He and Samus settled for simply looking at each other. However, instead of being angry and hostile, they felt oddly calmed. They stared directly into each other's eyes, neither making a single move. There were not words, as they simply spoke with their expressions. Samus held out a hand, and Olimar looked down at it, before turning back to her.

"Could you get me another drink?" he asked.

"Uh...sure," replied the woman, going back into the building. She'd hoped they were having a moment, but that didn't seem to be the case. Or, if it was, Olimar wasn't interested in exploring it.

"Vodka Martini, please," Olimar called after her.

* * *

Samus walked up to the open bar. "Could I get two vodka martinis?" she called out to the bartender, sliding a couple of bills across the table. The man caught them, nodded, and went back to prepare the drinks. As Samus waited, she looked around, noticing a man with his head face down on the bar counter. She hadn't seen a lot of people get super drunk at these events, but it wasn't unheard of. Deciding to interfere, she poked him gently in the shoulder. "Hey, buddy? You need me to call you a cab or something?"

The man bolted upwards, and Samus was dismayed to see it was Sparks Brushel, the man who'd interviewed her the day before her capture. She briefly wondered how he'd managed to get into this party in the first place. After all, even with his suit, he looked like crap. His toothbrush hair hair had grown out a bit, and was now dangling over the tops of his ears. His ever present five o'clock shadow remained. His eyes looked droopy, like he couldn't focus on what was in front of him.

"Oh, hey Miss Araaaannnn..." he slurred, trying to prop his head up with his arm, but failing, "Didn't think I'd seeeeeee you...Hearddddd about your work in K-2LLLLLLL..."

Samus was on the verge of calling him a cab so she wouldn't have to listen to him anymore, but something he said made her snap to attention. K-2L...Old Bird had told her about that place. He had lived there. "What happened in K-2L?" she asked.

"Yooooouuuuuu...blew up..." garbled Brushel, leaning back. Samus noticed he had several photographs in his front pocket, and snatched them out in one quick movement. She began to inspect them.

Oh, no.

The photos showed a desolate wasteland, littered with the ruins of village buildings, as well as bodies of various Chozo citizens. Others displayed the Space Pirates, apparently not at all disheartened by her escape, carrying what were clearly Aran International weapons. The last one displayed her worst nightmare: A Metroid Launcher, operated by the Space Pirates. Samus couldn't even comprehend what she was seeing.

"When were these taken?" she demanded. Getting no response, she looked up to see Brushel was on the verge of falling asleep. She frantically slapped him in the face. "When were these taken?!"

"Yestardaaaaaayyyyy..." mumbled Brushel, "It suuuuuuuuucks..." Then he fell onto the counter and passed out.

Samus, fuming with rage, abandoned her drink and marched out to the main entrance. Robotnik, ever the publicity hound, was still giving interviews and pictures with the press. He was cut off by Samus grabbing him by the shoulder. "Robotnik," she snapped, anger clear in her voice, "We need to talk."

Robotnik, shocked at her expression, turned to the crowd of reporters. "I'm sorry, I have to take this," he insisted, before returning to Samus, "What's going on? What's gotten into you, Sammy?"

"This has gotten into me!" she retorted, shoving the pictures in his face, "What the hell is going on in K-2L?! I didn't approve any shipments!"

Robotnik looked at the photos, before sighing with disappointment. "Sammy, you can't be this naive-" he started.

"Naive?!" she almost shouted. Samus was rapidly losing control of her own anger. "How is it naive to expect nobody runs the company behind my back?! I was naive before. This...what did you do?"

Robotnik stared at her for a long time, looking somewhat sad. All the while, reporters continued to clamor. "Samus!" called one of the men, "Could we get a picture?"

"Let's just do it," said Robotnik trying to defuse the situation. Samus, still seething with rage, wanted to argue, but she had no desire to cause a scene here. So they put their arms on each others shoulders, pretending everything was fine, while the photographers got their fill.

"Samus," whispered Robotnik, "Why do you think I filed the injunction against you? You're gonna destroy everything." He patted her on the back, looking at her as one might stare at a stupid child. "It's for your own good, you know." Then he simply walked down the carpet to his car, waving off the reporters who wanted more.

Samus, meanwhile, stood on the steps, watching him go. Her brain had shut down as it tried to process the fact that her oldest friend had betrayed her.

* * *

"Here you can see the hike to the outskirts of the small village of K-2L, a monument to suffering. The Chozo people, driven from their homes, are forced to search for any shelter they can find, in order to escape from the local warlords. The aggressors of these attacks have identified themselves as the Space Pirates, claiming to come from the stars, bringing judgement with them. Whatever their mission, they are heavily armed, and have begun moving into other villages, even ruins of older structures, which provide little protection for the local people."

Samus sat on her couch, her Mark III arm cannon affixed to her right forearm. She was busy making some final adjustments with a screwdriver, but that didn't keep her focus off the news. She observed as hundreds of innocent Chozo people were forced to walk miles across the hot desert. The little footage of the Pirates that was shown only made the situation even more bleak, as they tore apart anything in sight. With her weapons. Samus' fury only grew by the second, and her nails dug into her palms so hard they bled.

"Around me, women and children desperately plead for news on their husbands and fathers, many of whom are forcibly inducted into the Space Pirates militia, or facing execution. With little outside political support, there appears to be no hope for these people, and no savior coming for them."

That did it.

Samus activated her arm cannon, charging up the Power Beam. Raising the device, she fired a single, yellow energy bolt straight into the center of the television. The screen burst and shattered with a flurry of sparks, sending shard of glass and metal in all directions around it. The remainder of the device dropped, landing against the ground with a crack.

But it wasn't enough for Samus. Her rage grew even further, and she spun around, facing the glass windows showing the staircase into her workshop. She fired into one, then another, before spinning around to blast the third. Each blast was accompanied by a shattering sound, as large chunks of glass dropped down onto the floor, cracking into fragments too small to see. Samus stood there, fuming, as she observed her work. This would be only a taste of things to come.

"Adam?" she demanded, none of her usual sarcasm in her voice, "Assemble the Mark III."

* * *

 **Outskirts of K-2L, Zebes**

For the people of K-2L, the world might as well have been ending. The Space Pirates refused to leave them alone, constantly launching their brutal Metroid bombers, just to flush the citizens out. Those who came along quietly were brutally shoved at gunpoint, placed into groups who would most likely be executed later on. Those who fled fared no better. Some tried to hide in ruined buildings, but were quickly forced out by gunfire. Open resistance was met with the Space Pirate's energy scythes, often slicing off a Chozo's hand or foot. Abandoned houses were looted for anything of value. The able-bodied men we placed against the wall, where they'd be given the ultimatum: Join or Die.

A Chozo father, Grey Voice, was dragged out of the house he'd been hiding in, along with his son. As the Pirate soldier forced him across the ruined town, Gorea noticed him. _"Take the man,"_ he spat to his henchman, _"Put him with the others."_ This order was immediately obeyed, as Grey Voice's son was dragged away from him, and he was pulled over to the wall of an abandoned church.

 _"Father!"_ screamed his son, breaking out of his captor's grip. Grey Voice followed suit, attempting to reach his son, but was promptly clobbered over the head by Gorea. The vicious Pirate Commander grabbed the small boy roughly by one wing, tossing him away.

 _"What is the matter with you?!"_ he snarled at Gray Voice. He swiped his claws across the Chozo's chest, leaving three long slashes on his skin. _"Shoot the old parrot! He's even more useless than you!"_

Grey Voice's son could do nothing but scream as his father was hefted up onto his knees. The Pirate henchman forcefully pressed the barrel of his weapon against the Chozo's skull, leaving an indent. _"Turn your head! Let me see your eyes!"_ he roared, as he gripped the trigger.

Then, the sound of rocket engines turned everybody's head to the skies.

The sound was followed by a humanoid figure, flying at incredible speed towards them. All of a sudden, the rocket's in the individual's boots and back deactivated, sending it diving down towards them, where it landed with a metallic thud. The person was dressed in red and gold armor, with a blue visor, and two little white dots that showed his or her eyes. The figure had a glowing blue circle in the upper left corner of it's chest, and it's right forearm was replaced with a cannon weapon of some kind.

The Space Pirate screamed in fear, and immediately opened fired on Samus, but the bullets bounced off the armor with harmless pings. Samus charged forward, landing a devastating punch to the Pirate's stomach. The soldier went flying through the air like a thrown rock, sailing over a roof and landing on the other side. Turning around, Samus fired her arm cannon twice more, knocking two more Pirate Troopers through crumbling walls. One more tried to aim some kind of grenade launcher at her, but Samus caught him before he did, launching a burst of her Power Beam into him and knocking him into multiple weapon crates.

However, as she turned to deal with the Pirates by the hostage truck, she stopped in her tracks. The Pirates, panicking, had seized multiple Chozo civilians, using them as living shields. They held the barrels of their guns against the bird-like humanoid's heads, screeching at Samus in their harsh language. Samus, faced with no other choice, lowered her arm cannon, allowing the Power Beam charge to fade.

Unbeknownst to the Pirates, Samus had expected this tactic. As they continued to growl and snarl at her, Adam was busy locking onto hostile targets, while making sure no civilians would be hit. Once all the remaining troopers were singled out, twin silver guns emerged from Samus' shoulder armor, firing directly into the necks of the Pirates, dropping them where they stood. With a click, the guns slid back into place. The projectiles were only tranquilizers, but the Pirates wouldn't be waking up for a day or two.

With all their enemies down, Grey Voice's son rushed towards his father, and they threw their feathery arms around each other once again. As they embraced, Grey Voice turned his head to look at their armored savior, who silently stomped past the father and son. Gorea, who had observed the action with a look of sheer terror, turned around and fled, attempting to dial a number on his phone at the same time.

Grinning beneath her metal helmet, Samus pulled back her left arm, before flicking it forward like a whip. An energy rope, the "Grapple Beam," extended out of the back of her gauntlet, shooting towards Gorea and wrapping around his ankle. The Space Pirate tripped, falling on his face on the rough ground. Samus pulled him back with a wave of her arm, before grabbing him by the throat. She bashed her arm cannon into his face, breaking his nose and causing him to cry out as green blood dripped down into his mouth. Satisfied, she tossed him into the crowd of assembled Chozo people.

 _"Do what you will,"_ she said, her built in translator program conveying her words to the people. She then activated her jet boosters, flying away from the ruined town, leaving Gorea to his fate at the hands of a crowd of very, very angry Chozo.

* * *

That was a good start, but Samus had more work to do. As she sailed over the ruins of various towns, she used her enhanced zoom lens to get a better look at the ground. After a few minutes of searching, she found what she was looking for: The Metroid Launcher, surrounded by other destructive Aran International weapons. Not only that, but there appeared to be two Metroid Launchers in the area. Samus smiled again. Perfect.

Then something knocked her out of the sky.

Samus took a direct hit from some kind of projectile, causing a small explosion and sending her tumbling to the ground. She slammed into the hard surface, leaving a crater in the middle of a road. Fortunately for Samus, her armor held, only receiving some pretty bad scratches on the exterior. Her visor failed to crack, thankfully, and she herself was uninjured.

Of course, that didn't mean she wasn't pissed off. Grabbing onto the rocky wall, Samus climbed out of the pit she'd created, surrounded by stunned and terrified Pirate soldiers. Samus looked down the ruined street, discovering her attacker, a large tank. Leveling it's cannon at her, the massive vehicle fired once again, but Samus simply stepped aside. Turning back, she responded in kind, aiming her arm blaster at the beast. The tip of the barrel parted, revealing her personal rocket launcher. Samus fired a single missile, which impacted the tank with a metallic thud, then exploded.

The Space Pirates, knowing their weapons would be of little use against the armored super soldier before them, dropped their guns and ran screaming off into the distance. Samus took quick aim and managed to pick off most of them, leaving them unconscious on the ground. Turning to the Metroid Launcher, Samus flew into the air once again, before launching a maximum intensity Power Beam blast at the metallic terror. The Metroid Launcher burst in a terrific explosion, tearing apart multiple other weapons in it's path. To be sure that the other one was destroyed as well, Samus locked on and fired a missile at it's location. Another explosion confirmed her hit. With a smile, Samus turned back to the skies, ascending to a cruising altitude, beginning her journey home.

As she departed, Samus was unaware of the large military truck up the road, carrying a very shocked Supreme Master Weavel, observing all his heavy artillery being violently destroyed. His eyes grew wider as he observed a single armored figure, flying out of the explosions.

* * *

 **Valhalla Air Force Base, United States**

Anthony strolled down the halls into the "War Room." Not too long ago, he had been informed that a massive weapons cache belonging to the Space Pirates was completely blown apart, but not by anybody affiliated with the United States. Everybody, with the exception of Admiral Dane, was either yelling into a phone or furiously hammering on a computer. The large screens displayed the satellite tracking of their target.

"No, Senator Stewart, we had no involvement in this."

"Wasn't the Marines!"

"Or the Army!"

"Can we please get a look at this thing?! Visual targeting?!" roared Admiral Dane.

"Negative, sir."

Dane turned to Anthony. "Colonel Higgs," he sighed, "We've run every identification check we could on this thing. Nothing. Jack Squat."

"Do we have a point of origin?" asked Anthony. Surely this thing would've been spotted on radar before it dived into enemy territory.

"No sir. It's not a stealth vehicle, it's tiny. We think it might be some kind of rogue drone. It can't be manned," responded a technician.

"Anthony, tell me you've got something," pleaded Admiral Dane. Anthony was just about to respond, and tell him that he was just as much in the dark as everyone else. However, before he could, another thought suddenly occurred to him.

"Hold on, let me check something," he answered, grabbing a phone.

* * *

Samus' high altitude flight was interrupted by a phone ringing. She'd predicted people would call her in the middle of missions, so she'd programmed her suit to intercept calls made to her cell phone. She ordered Adam to answer, figuring she had nothing better to do.

"Samus Aran, resident genius," she greeted.

"Samus, it's Anthony," he said on the other end. Unfortunately for him, Samus was currently flying at transonic speed, and the air zipping past her made quite the ruckus, making it impossible to hear him.

"What?" she said, above the rushing noise.

"I said it's Anthony."

"What?"

"I said it's Anthony!"

"What?"

"I SAID IT'S ANTHONY!" he almost shouted into the receiver.

Adam decided to fix this situation, and began transcribing Anthony's words onto the heads-up display for her. "Oh, hey, Tony," she responded, "What's up?"

"What the hell is that sound?" asked Anthony, "It sounds like you're talking from the top of a missile!"

"Oh, I'm...driving with the top down," said Samus. She made a mental note to come up with a list of excuses for situations like this.

"You're on the phone in your car?" demanded Anthony.

"I'm wearing an earpiece! I'm not that reckless," retorted Samus.

"Yeah, well, I need some info. Somebody just blew up a depository of weapons about..." he checked the map, "...three miles from where you were imprisoned. We can't identify the thing."

"What, you want me to contact him?" asked Samus, "I'm sure that if he did you're job without leaving a calling card, he's not big on getting credit for his work." However, she couldn't keep herself from occasionally panting. Samus wasn't out of shape, but piloting this armor was a pretty big physical strain.

"Sammy, how are you out of breath from driving?" asked Anthony.

"I'm not, I just went jogging...after I drove into the hills," Samus responded. Mentally, she kicked herself. She definitely needed to come up with better excuses.

"So, you haven't sent anything into that area? Any drones you might want to tell me about? Like now?" he asked.

"Nope. The only drone I've got is Adam," said Samus. At least she wasn't lying.

Anthony was distracted by someone yelling about the mysterious aircraft. Turning to the screen, he noticed that a pair of N-64 Arwings in the area had gained a visual on it, and were currently in pursuit.

"Good," he responded to his friend. He knew she was mentally unbalanced at the moment, but she hadn't gone so far as to interfere in war. "I gotta go. We've got one to take out." He hung up.

Hearing his tone, Samus turned her head slightly in flight. Sure enough, two streamlined N-64 Arwings had pulled up behind her.

"Aw, crap," she muttered.

"War Room, this is Barrel Roll One," said the first pilot, "We've got visual on the bogey. No identifying features."

"Has it responded to radio contact?" asked Anthony.

"No, sir."

"Engage and terminate," ordered Admiral Dane.

Inside her armor, Samus was trying to find a solution to this latest mess. There was no way she could fight back against these pilots. They were on her side, even if they didn't know it. Not to mention she'd have to pay for the replacement planes. Eventually, she resorted to the time honored tactic of running away.

"Adam, increase propulsion to maximum," she ordered. Adam obeyed, sending Samus into supersonic speeds. Sadly, this wasn't enough to outrace the two jets, which immediately increased their own speed to match hers. Barrel Roll 2, despite her small size, still managed to get a target lock on her, and fired a missile, which Adam was quick to inform her of.

"Deploy bombs, deploy bombs!" shouted Samus. A hidden launcher in her leg popped up, shooting a number of tiny blue explosives into the air. These bombs blocked the missile's path, causing it to burst far away from Samus. The blast was still close enough to knock her around, as well as crack her armor a little more, but there was no serious damage, and Samus was off once again.

Barrel Roll 1, not to be upstaged, tried to fire his machine guns at Samus. She swerved to avoid the steady streams of bullets, but a few managed to hit her, chipping her armor. Thinking quickly, Samus opened her flaps, slowing down and allowing the two advancing jets to zoom right past her.

Both pilots shouted out in alarm. "Sir, we've just lost visual and radar on the bogey!" shouted Barrel Role 2.

"Barrel Role 1, you got anything?" demanded Admiral Dane.

"No, sir," responded the pilot, "Thing just pulled a Houdini. I think it's gone."

Everybody in the War Room sighed. Hopefully, whoever sent that thing would learn their lesson from this. Otherwise, they might have to chase this thing again.

Anthony's thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. Looking down at the caller I.D., he was irritated even further to discover that it was Samus. His rage at her was barely able to process the question of why she would call him. She knew he was working. Preparing to give her a piece of his mind, he answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Anthony, it's me," said Samus. Unlike last time, she made no effort to keep the weariness out of her voice. At the moment, Anthony didn't care.

"Really, I had no idea," he retorted.

"No, I meant it is me. What we were talking about, it's me. I'm sorry." Samus hated revealing herself to him at this time, but she hated lying to him even more. He was, after all, her best friend, and she'd wanted him to be a part of her new agenda. Besides, she needed to stop these jets without blowing them up.

Anthony, as expected, was furious. "No, that is not how this goes," he snapped, "This is a war zone. You do not interfere, and you do not send equipment in unauthorized. If you-"

"This isn't a drone," Samus cut him off, "It's **me**! It's a suit of armor!"

Anthony's face paled.

"Anthony, what are you doing?" demanded Admiral Dane.

Meanwhile, back in the air, as they were returning to base, Barrel Roll 1 glanced over at his comrade, just to make sure he was alright. However, he noticed an abnormal object attached to the bottom of his friend's jet. As Barrel Roll 2 leaned to the side, the object was revealed as a humanoid figure in red armor, grasping the jet.

"ON YOUR BOTTOM!" he shouted, "IT LOOKS LIKE A...PERSON! SHAKE HIM OFF!" For all he knew, the figure was attempting to plant a bomb on the jet.

Barrel Roll 2 immediately spun into an avalon roll, trying to shake his uninvited passenger. Samus tried to hold on, having shifted her arm cannon into another normal gauntlet, but the speed and shifting of the jet was just too much. Her grip eventually came loose, sending her flying into Barrel Roll 1's wing, tearing the tip off. Smoke burst from the damaged stabilizer, and the jet flew out of control.

Back in the War Room, Anthony could only stare in shock as the pilot frantically tried to regain his grip. Giving in, he activated the ejector, launching himself out of the cockpit just as the jet exploded. He and his seat dived towards the ground, with no sings of slowing down.

"Barrel Roll 1 is down!" shouted Barrel Roll 2.

"Barrel Roll 2, do you see a 'chute deployed?" asked Admiral Dane, trying to keep the fear out of his voice.

"Negative! There is no 'chute!"

The pilot was trying to deploy his parachute, but the mechanism had jammed. He plummeted towards the ground, desperately pulling at the handle, making little progress. Then he heard the sound of rocket thrusters, and turned up to see the armored figure zooming towards him at full speed.

"Sir, I have a confirmed visual on the bogey," said Barrel Roll 2.

Dane grabbed his microphone. "Reengage. If you get a shot, blow that thing outta the sky!"

"No!" exclaimed Anthony. He refused to believe Samus would intentionally take one of the United Federation's planes out. It had to be an accident, and he couldn't let his friend be executed over it. "We don't know what we're dealing with, pull him back-"

"If you get a shot, take it!" snapped Dane, "That thing took out an N-64 Arwing in a no-flight zone! It's a danger!"

Back in the sky, Samus was still diving towards the falling pilot. "Lady, the second plane is coming back at you," said Adam, "Take evasive action."

"No!" said Samus, "Keep going!" She couldn't just leave this guy to die. It wasn't her fault, but she still had to clean up this mess.

Reaching the fallen pilot, Samus grabbed onto his parachute handle. He appeared to be freaking out at the sight of her, but it didn't matter. Using her armor enhanced grip, Samus tore the switch out, exposing the parachute to the air and sending the pilot into a slow, safe descent. Before he could figure out what had happened, she was gone.

"Sir, we have a 'chute! He's okay!" exclaimed Barrel Role 2.

In the War Room, everybody cheered, especially Anthony. The bogey had been forgotten for the moment, as the loss of life had been prevented. Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, he returned to his cell phone.

"Sammy? You still there?" he hesitantly asked.

"Yeah..." she panted.

"You crazy bitch..." he breathed, trying not to laugh. Samus laughed too. They would need to have a serious discussion about this, but that could be resolved later. Nobody had died, and any damages could be repaired.

"So, do you wanna check this out?" asked Samus, as she spiraled over the hills.

"I'll think about it. Right now, we have another problem. What am I gonna tell the news?"

Samus thought for a moment. "Training exercise? Doesn't that usually work?"

"I don't think it's that easy."

"Right..."

* * *

 ***This is a reference to Mario Mario and the Bottle of Lightning. Gamer4's plugged my story at least twice now, so I figured I owe him one.**


	8. Chapter 8: The World Falls Apart

**Here we go. I think there'll only be two more chapters after this.**

* * *

Chapter 8: The World Falls Apart

 **The Next Day**

"An unfortunate training exercise occurred yesterday, resulting in the destruction of a single N-64 Arwing," said Anthony, speaking into the cameras, "Fortunately, the pilot was uninjured, and no other casualties occurred. As for the turn of events in K-2L, we want to emphasize that the government of the United States had no involvement whatsoever. The identity of the interfering force, as well as any people behind it, remain unknown, but a thorough investigation is underway-"

Robotnik shut off the news at that point. He'd been at this long enough to know when Anthony was throwing excuses to the press. They weren't actually searching for whoever it was. What puzzled him was why. He couldn't see any reason for the government to cover these events up. They had to be behind it. Unless...

His thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. Grabbing it and checking the I. D., he sighed. He could guess exactly what this call was about.

* * *

 **Samus' House**

Olimar walked into his employer's house bright and early, as per usual. The awkwardness of the charity party's events hung over him, and he tried not to focus on it. He'd briefly wondered why Samus hadn't returned, but she probably had her reasons. After all, this was Samus. They'd simply apologize to each other, and the whole incident would be forgotten. At least, he hoped. It was rare to get a genuine apology out of that woman. Her recent philosophy change seemed to make it more likely, though. Seeing Samus wasn't in the immediate living quarters, he walked down the stairs to her workshop.

"Ow! Ah! Careful! That's not how that's supposed to come off!"

"Lady, please hold still. The move you move around, the longer this is going to take."

"No, not the leg, not the leg-OW!"

Recognizing his boss' voice, along with the robotic droll of Adam, Olimar was perplexed. What was she doing down there? His confusion only increased when he saw that the glass windows to the staircase had been shattered. Then he looked up at Samus.

Samus was still in her red and gold armor, with the exception of her helmet, which had been removed. At the moment, she stood on a raised metallic platform, surrounded by robotic arms extending out of the floor and ceiling. They grasped and pulled, apparently trying to remove the armor, without much success. Samus was flinching and twisted, obviously uncomfortable. Her leg was currently in the grasp of one, yanking it around so that it dangled off the platform, while Samus barely managed to keep her balance.

"Note to self: Make the next one come off easier," she grumbled.

"Great idea, lady," said Adam.

"What the hell...?" said Olimar.

Samus paled, turning her head slowly, as the rest of her froze in place. She hadn't heard the little man come in. All the robotic arms paused as well, ceasing their attempts to disassemble the suit. Samus racked her brain for excuses, coming up empty, and she gave in and shrugged.

"Let's face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing,"* she said bluntly.

Olimar stared at the damaged suit. "Are those holes...from bullets?" he gasped, pointing to the various indents in the suit.

"Well, not bullet holes," said Samus, "The bullets didn't actually penetrate-"

She was cut off by a thump.

"Aaaaannnnndddd he fainted," she sighed, "Adam, can we get this over with?"

"I thought you'd never ask, lady," replied the A.I.

"OW! HEY! NOT LIKE THAT!"

* * *

 **Zebes Desert, Several Hours Later**

Even in the middle of the night, the deserts of Zebes were still irritatingly hot. The Space Pirates constantly grumbled about having to set up camp outside, when the caves in the mountains were much cooler. Weavel didn't care, though. If anything, the heat made the Pirates angrier and more aggressive. Definitely an added bonus when engaged in combat.

The Space Pirate Supreme Master stood outside his tent as the line of black cars pulled up. The door of the first was opened, and Robotnik stepped out, making no attempt to disguise the fact that he was in a bad mood.

"Greetings," growled Weavel in English. Noticing Robotnik eyeing his cracked and scared scales, he added, "You can thank our friend Miss Aran for that."

Robotnik shrugged. "Not my problem. You're the one who didn't kill her when I paid you to."

"To kill her?!" snarled Weavel, "You gave us nothing. You asked us to give up the greatest weapons developer of all time for mere pocket change."

Robotnik chuckled to himself. He knew that wasn't the only reason the creature had reneged on their deal. While he had been supplying them with weapons for a considerable period, he had always arranged it so they could never surpass the power of the United States. He was creating war to keep his company in power, and make more money than they could ever give him. They'd kept Samus alive so she could create the ultimate weapons he usually denied them for free, and escape from their contract.

"Leave your guards outside," said Weavel, stomping into the nearby tent. Robotnik signaled to his men, who nodded and remained in place by the car. Robotnik then followed Weavel.

Inside the tent, Robotnik was directed to a massive metal figure in the corner. He'd heard about the weapon Samus had developed in the cave over the phone, but seeing it in person still shocked him. Crudely reassembled by the Space Pirates, it stood in a humanoid shape, with two cannon-like barrels instead of hands. A large, carefully cut hole sat over it's heart, where Samus' Aurora Unit Reactor had once sat. Robotnik stared in wonder at the creation, simultaneously admiring Samus' craftsmanship, and wondering how she'd managed to build this without the Pirates catching on.

"She made this?" he absentmindedly asked, poking his fingers into the Reactor hole.

"This is just a prototype," said Weavel, looking over the designs Samus had left in the cave, "Crude, yet powerful. Aran has created an improved version, and is using it to take out our weapons. It's the greatest development in the history of war." He stood in awe of the powerful suit once again. "However, she has prevented our work in Zebes. Thankfully, at the same time, you vie for Aran's position of power. So we have something in common."

Robotnik turned to the Pirate, narrowing his eyes. Weavel may have been speaking the truth, but it still infuriated him. Despite working alongside her for a decade, he'd always despised Samus. The kid was arrogant and dismissive, not to mention she impeded him at every turn. He'd built Aran International alongside Rodney, yet the girl had been given the company without ever working for it. She'd treated him like the help, bossing him around with pretenses of being his friend. The assassination attempt had been a result of him reaching his limit. Weavel's remark only reminded him of how Samus held more power than he, while doing nothing to earn it.

"If our deal still holds, I will make you an offer. I will trade you these designs, and the armor," said Weavel, "And in exchange, you will provide me with our own metal soldiers." He chuckled as he drank from a bottle of alcohol. "We will crush Samus Aran with her own crowning achievement."

Robotnik looked angry for a moment, but his expression faded into a nonchalant smile. Sitting down next to Weavel, he reached over and patted him on the scaly shoulder, like a comrade.

That was when he activated the device built into his right glove.

Weavel froze and shuddered as piercing sounds emitted from the glove. Veins in his face turned black and bulged out, visible beneath his scales. He suddenly found he could no longer move any part of his body, except for his eyes. Looking up at Robotnik, he questioned why he was unaffected by the noise, until he noticed the glow of the two tiny objects in his enemy's ears.

"Consider our contract terminated," spat the scientist. Turning off his glove, he removed his earplugs, grabbing the designs of the armor. "Really, though, you can only blame yourself. In business deals, I generally expect my partners to follow through on their agreements." He laughed at Weavel's petrified and terror-filled expression. "Don't worry, it only lasts fifteen minutes. I could never get it to be permanent." He strolled out the front of the tent.

Robotnik emerged, at which all of his guards returned their attention to him. "Pack up the armor," he ordered, pointing behind him, "Get rid of the rest, it's junk." The soldiers nodded, and as Robotnik returned to his car, he only vaguely heard the sound of bullets.

Once his vehicle began moving, Robotnik made a quick phone call. "I'm commissioning a new project," he said, "Set up under the main reactor. I'm sending in data plans. Get our best engineers on the job. I want a functioning prototype within twenty-four hours. And keep it off the books."

* * *

 **Samus' House, Several More Hours Later**

Olimar came down the stairs into Samus' workshop once again, summoned by a call from her. After the previous incident, Samus had explained the details of her new secret life to him, but he hadn't really be able to listen. Inside, he was greeted by the sight of Samus, who had hooked the upper part of her armored suit to a metal stand. She was surrounded by multiple computers, and was currently tinkering with the suit. Most of the damage from the battles in Zebes had been repaired, and she was currently placing a white cylindrical device into the arm cannon.

"Oh, hey, Olimar, you came," she said, noticing him, "Listen, if you've got a moment, I need a favor." She handed him a small, black item resembling a flash drive. "I need you to get into my office. This lock drive will hack into the mainframe for you. I need you to retrieve all the recent shipping records. If they're not there, try Robotnik's private server that he thinks I don't know about. I'm not sure he's the only one, but it's the best place to look right now. I'd do it myself, but since they've removed me from company control, they'd probably throw me out."

Olimar briefly looked at the drive. "What do you need that data for?" he asked.

"Finish what I started," said Samus returning to the armor, "I'm gonna stop him, and anyone else who's been selling my weapons without my knowledge. I'm gonna track down every one of my weapons, and blow them to pieces."

Olimar tried several times to voice his thoughts, and he eventually got out, "Samus, I support everything you do, even if I don't agree with it, but if you're going down this road, I won't be on it."

Samus turned to him, slowly. "Maybe you don't understand," she said completely serious, "This is all there is now. There is no ceremony. No contracts to sign. No statements to the press. No nothing. There is the next job, and the next one after that, and the next one after that. This is my work."

"So you've gone from building weapons to throwing yourself in front of machine guns."

"If that's what I need to do. I've saving the people I threatened."

Olimar shook his head. "Then you'll do your work alone." He tossed the drive back onto the table. "Consider this my letter of resignation." He started to leave.

Samus stared at him, a dumbfounded expression on her face. "Okay, let me get this straight. All those years I carelessly built instruments of deaths and caused untold tragedies, you worked for me with no problems. Now, when I'm trying to save lives, and make up for the damage I created, suddenly you won't have any part in it?" She threw her hands up. "Unbelievable. And you called me an irresponsible a-hole."

Olimar spun around to face her. "Samus, you are going on a suicide mission," he retorted, "You are not a soldier, and you can't make change like this. You've lost it. So no, I won't be involved in this."

Samus sat down, placing one hand on her forehead, looking tired. "If that bomb had been one tiny bit closer, I'd been dead," she sighed, "I was given another chance. I was shown what I'd created. Old Bird...he died so I could live for something. Not so I could just go back to living as a war monger and ignoring all the deaths I caused." She turned to Olimar. "I didn't lose my mind. I got back my heart. And I know, and feel, that I'm doing the right thing."

"How do you know?" demanded Olimar.

Samus smiled sadly. "Because it's right."

Olimar searched his mind for a response, but he could find none. Eventually, he concluded that perhaps he had judged her too quickly. Maybe this was the right thing to do. Maybe it was the only thing to do. He walked back over to the table, picking up the drive.

"Sometimes, I think you need me less than I need you," he said, quietly.

Samus stood up and embraced him, catching him off guard.

* * *

 **Aran International**

Olimar walked through the Aran International offices, doing his best not to look suspicious. If the board wouldn't let Samus into the building (with some encouragement from Robotnik, no doubt), they probably wouldn't take too kindly to him being there. Thankfully, everybody believed the lie about retrieving company documents for Robotnik. He kept a newspaper close to him, just so he looked casual.

Samus' old office was located near the front of the building, so it didn't take him a long time to reach it. He slipped inside quietly, noticing Robotnik had left Samus' company laptop in place. He'd probably gotten his greasy fingers all over it. Sitting down at the desk, Olimar booted up the laptop, arriving at the login page. Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed the lock drive, inserting it into one of the USB ports.

The system responded immediately, blaring a security breach alarm. Olimar held his breath as coding his didn't have time to read flashed over the screen. Eventually, the alarm faded, and he was quickly granted access. Olimar exhaled in relief, and set to work searching for the shipments. It only took him a few seconds to find the ghost drive, which contained several folders.

The first few were just what he'd expected, consisting of various Aran International weapons. They'd been shipped to Zebes, and based on what she'd told him, Olimar was pretty sure she'd already destroyed some of them. Thankfully, all that meant was that she had less work to do.

However, the contents of the fifth file proved to be much more troubling. Olimar's eyes widened as he saw design specs of armor. One looked like Samus', but much cruder, with two arm cannons, that was labeled as a template. The current project designs didn't resemble her armor at all, but it looked even worse, standing several feet tall and loaded with weapons. Even more terrifying, the file claimed the project was underway in a sector inside the factory, and had been created less than a day ago, meaning the armor was currently in development in the exact same building. Robotnik was building his own suit.

It only got worse with the contents of the next file, conspicuously marked "HIGHLY CLASSIFIED". A video clip loaded, showing multiple scaly creatures, armed with Aran International weapons, standing in a cave, while one growled words from a piece of paper. In the middle, a person sat tied to a chair, with a burlap sack over their head. Then the sack was yanked off and the person was revealed to be an injured Samus. Gasping, Olimar opened a command tab, and ordered the computer to translate the creature's speech. English subtitles began appearing on the screen.

"You lied to us, Ivo Robotnik," they read, "You failed to inform us that the target of our assassination was Samus Aran, our greatest provider. If you wish to see this woman dead, you will pay twice the-"

Olimar quickly shut off the clip. He didn't want to hear the rest. He quickly ordered the lock drive to copy all of the files, hoping he could get out of this building before-

"Fancy meeting you here," said a voice. Olimar looked up. Robotnik was standing in the doorway.

Frantic, Olimar opened another tab, attempting to make it look like he was working. He logged onto his own page on the company website, pretending to edit something in his contact info. He had the advantage of Robotnik walking towards him slowly, fortunately. Besides, it would've looked more suspicious if he'd stopped typing altogether. Noticing the lock drive was still visible, he slipped his newspaper over it.

Robotnik strolled over to the desk, peering over Olimar's shoulder at the screen. All he saw was Olimar's company profile, with a message saying that the changes had been saved. Satisfied, he walked over to a nearby table, wear a bottle of wine sat.

"So...what brings you here?" asked Olimar, trying desperately to sound normal.

"Just work," said Robotnik, taking a drink directly from the bottle. He looked over at Olimar. "Ollie...I'm sorry...about Sammy. She's always been a bit of a difficult person. Ya know, I thought when she got home, everything would go back to the way it was before. We all did. But...another person came out of that cave, don't ya think?" He walked over to Olimar.

"Well, she certainly changed..." said Olimar.

"It goes beyond that," said Robotnik, thoughtfully staring out the window, "Part of her died in that cave. She...wasn't who we'd spent so long supporting. It's hard to watch."

Olimar swallowed. "Well, it was a stressful experience," he mumbled, "She's stronger than she looks." A tiny blip alerted him to the fact that the data had finished downloading. Reaching across the table, he wrapped his fingers around the drive through the newspaper, pulling it out as quietly as possible.

Robotnik reached over and patted him on the back. "You're a good man, Ollie," he said with a wide smile, "Better than she deserves."

Olimar returned the smile as sweat ran down the back of his neck. "Thanks, man," he answered, "I'd better get back to work myself." He grabbed his paper, discreetly slipping the lock drive into his pocket.

"Take care," said Robotnik, as Olimar walked out of the office. The smaller man tried his best not to hustle. He knew Robotnik would find out what he'd done the second he checked the computer, but that didn't mean he had to be there when it happened. Once he'd passed through the office doors, Olimar began scurrying as fast as his short legs could carry him without actually running.

Once Olimar was gone, Robotnik seized the laptop, closing down Olimar's window. Of course, the sight that greeted him was the open ghost drive, along with the words "Download Complete." Robotnik swore so badly his mother twitched in her grave.

On his way out of the building, Olimar was stopped as he heard someone call his name. Spinning around, he released the breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Agent Fox McCloud sat on on one of the lobby chairs.

"Mr. Pik?" said the fox, "I just wanted to confirm the meeting that we scheduled. I hope this isn't an inconvenience-"

"No!" exclaimed Olimar, "Not a problem! Not at all. In fact, let's have it now. Let's have the meeting now. Not here."

"Uh, sir?" asked Agent McCloud, "Are you okay?"

Olimar hurriedly ushered the agent out the door. "You have no idea."

* * *

Robotnik stormed his way down to Sector 24, directly beneath the Central Aurora Unit Reactor. The past few days had been all around infuriating. First, there'd been Samus going all Robo Cop on the Space Pirates in Zebes. Then, Olimar had grabbed all the data about his new project, and would be delivering it to Samus before too long. As if all that wasn't enough, he'd gotten a call from the engineers constructing his armor, and they didn't sound particularly optimistic. You really had to feel sorry for those guys.

Upon his arrival, Robotnik saw that the engineers were gathered around the base of the reactor, speaking to each other in hushed whispers.

"Should we tell him?"

"He's gonna find out anyway."

"What if he snaps?"

"Of course he's gonna-Wait, shut up. He's here."

The head of the project, a short, bald man named Snively, gave Robotnik his attention. "Mr. Robotnik? We've hit a bit of a bump in the road. The tech required to power the armor...sir, it's not functionally possible to-"

"Not possible?" snapped Robotnik. He gripped Snively by the arm, pointing towards the Aurora Unit Reactor. "Snively, the technology is right here. I just wanted you to shrink it down."

"Yes, sir, we understand that, but it can't be done..." Snively stammered.

Robotnik rounded on him, fury in is eyes. "Samus Aran was able to build this device in a cave!" he roared, "With a box of scraps!"**

Snively backed up against the railing. "Well..." he mumbled, "I'm sorry-"

"IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!"

"Sir, even-"

"IN! A! CAVE! WITH! A! BOX! OF! SCRAPS!" screamed Robotnik, foaming at the mouth. His eyes were completely bloodshot.

"Sir, are you okay?!" exclaimed Snively.

Suddenly, Robotnik's eyes faded back to normal, and the saliva dripping from his mouth just disappeared. He blinked in surprise, as though he was unaware as to what he'd been doing. "Uh, yeah, I'm fine," he said, rubbing his head, "What just happened?"

Snively held his breath, praying that his answer wouldn't turn the boss rabid again. "I was saying, we can't build the-"

Robotnik held up a hand to silence him. "Actually, you know what? Never mind." A devious grin began to spread across his face. "I have a better idea."

* * *

 **Samus' House, Some Time Later**

Samus strolled up the stairs to her living room. Olimar had been gone for a while, and she'd gotten a bit concerned over him. Looking over to the couch, she found the cell phone she was looking for, half covered by a pillow. She really needed to keep that in a better place. She grabbed the device, plopping down on the couch just as Olimar himself called her. Her finger reached for the answer button.

Then a high pitched piercing sound froze her where she stood.

Every nerve in her body pulsed as dark blue veins bulged up in her face. She suddenly lost all feeling in every part of her body, and could only move her eyes. Her cell phone fell from her hand, plopping on the couch. Two long arms grabbed her by the shoulders, stopping her from falling on the floor. Her phone was seized and placed on the couch besides her. Looking at the right hand, she saw the white glove, as well as the glowing blue dot in the palm. The thumb reached over and deactivated the sonic stunner.

"This was always your favorite, wasn't it?" said Robotnik. Samus turned her eyes as much as she could to focus on the fat man looming over her. He smiled as he reached up to remove his earplugs. "I know we never put it into production, but I couldn't resist. I guess we both save all the best inventions for ourselves." He chuckled, sitting down next to her and placing a silver suitcase down.

"When I paid for you to get bumped off, you know why they didn't follow through with it?" asked Robotnik. He grabbed her by the chin, turning her face so it looked directly at him. "They wanted you to keep churning out your masterpieces. Keep the art alive, so to speak." He undid the top button of her shirt, giving him a view of her chest reactor. Samus stared into his eyes, horror engraved into them. "Now, I see that they were right. You still had one last gift to give to the world." He twisted the reactor, loosening it so he could pull it out. Then he yankedthe cord off the base.

Samus gasped as she felt her heart skip a beat. She felt little pain, but her heart began to slow down, ever so slightly. Each breath she took was more labored than the last, and she felt a prick inside her every time she inhaled. The mad man chuckled at her pain. "Oh, I've always wanted to see that. If only you knew how many times you've pissed me off. And I'm not alone in that. Believe me, if it were my name all over the building, people would've been a lot happier. Maybe I could make a whole theme park around it."

Robotnik held up the device. "You know something Rodney used to tell me?" he asked, sitting back down next to her, "If you had an idea, one that could revolutionize the world, you had an obligation to share it. Apparently, you didn't listen." He chuckled even further as he admired the reactor. "Sammy, you little devil. You've produced something of value, you stupid, arrogant, irritating little prick. The ultimate weapon, poised to put Aran International in power for another century. Which do you think sounds like a better name, Robotnik Revolutionary, or Ivo International?" He placed the reactor into the suitcase, smiling as Samus could only stare at him, her terror increasing with every word. "Shame I can't show you my suit. It's only a prototype, and I may have laid it on a little heavy with the extras, but what're you gonna do."

He started towards the front door, but stopped and turned around. "Oh, I almost forgot. Don't worry about Olimar. I'll get rid of him quickly. He won't suffer."

With that final taunt, he walked out the door, leaving Samus Aran to die on the couch.

* * *

 **Cliffhanger! I'm a terrible person.**

 ***I know this is the same line from the movie, but I couldn't resist. I love that line.**

 ****I promise that is the last time I will do that joke.**


	9. Chapter 9: Iron Woman vs Eggman

**Alright, we've reached the epic duel between armors! I thought I did a good job on this one, but let me know if I didn't.**

* * *

Chapter 9: Iron Woman vs. Eggman

"Slow down, slow down-Olimar, what do you mean Robotnik-" Anthony started. He was currently driving down the busy California streets, his earpiece in, with Olimar on the other end of the line. He'd been on his way home from work when the call had come in, and the short man sounded like he was having a nervous breakdown. Since Olimar had worked for Samus for years without that happening, something terrible was clearly occurring.

"Robotnik ordered a hit on Samus in Zebes!" exclaimed Olimar, "I found the Space Pirate message in his files, and he's been selling them weapons, and he's building his own armor, and-!" He had to stop for a few seconds to catch his breath, trying to calm the panic in his nerves. After coughing, he continued, "And now I can't contact her. I think Robotnik may have gotten to her and done something..."

After a quick meeting with Agent McCloud, the canine had called in several of his colleagues to arrest Robotnik. The others were humans, rather than anthropomorphic animals, but they still looked like they meant business. They were currently in the parking garage, making their way towards the black, bullet-proof SUV's they would take to the factory. Olimar had pointed out how cliché the things were, but this had gone ignored.

"Why would Robotnik hire people to kill Samus?" asked Anthony.

"Money, or he wanted more power over the company, I don't know!" snapped Olimar.

Anthony sighed. This was just gonna keep turning into one disaster after another, wasn't it. "I'll go check on her."

"Thank you, Anthony. Really," said Olimar, and he ended the call.

* * *

 **Samus' House**

All she knew was pain.

The effects of the stunner had worn off, restoring physical feeling to Samus' body, and bringing on the effects of the shrapnel. Her heart was slowing down, which numbed her body a bit, but not enough to stop the pain. Every move sent another bolt of agony across her entire body, and it even hurt to breath. Her face had turned ghostly pale, and it was nearly impossible to even stand up. To complicate the situation, she had to fight her body's urge to fade into unconsciousness.

Somehow, she'd managed to stumble her way to the elevator, and was on her way down to the workshop, where her only chance remained. Once the elevator hit the intended floor, Samus wobbled out, keying in the code while sitting on her knees. The door swung open, revealing her workshop. Across the room, inside a glass case, sat her original reactor, still fully functional.

Samus tried to make large strides across the room, but all she did was fall on her front, forcing her to drag herself across the workshop on her hands. Grabbing a nearby wheeled cart, she pulled her body on top of it, pushing herself along with one arm. Eventually, she bumped into the table, and forcefully raised her head up.

Propping herself up on one elbow, Samus gritted her teeth as she strained every muscle in her body to reach for the reactor's case. Her fingers met the glass, but she'd become so weak she couldn't make a grip on the thing. She tried to pull it over by the top, but her fingers slipped, and she only succeeded in pushing it away from her. Samus' other arm gave out, and she collapsed onto the floor.

Samus found she could not even consider trying again. Black spots danced before her eyes, and even the pain in her heart had mostly faded. It was a battle just to keep her eyes open, and she was losing. A single tear dripped from her eye as she stopped breathing. She didn't want to die. Not like this. Not lying on the ground like a dying child, next to a glass display case-

Samus blinked. The case, with her reactor inside, had been set down on the floor next to her, As she weakly seized the object, she looked up, discovering that her savior was not God, or some invisible force, but Dummy, with his three-fingered hand reattached. The robot made a whirring sound as it looked down at her.

Samus smiled, then used the full force of her body to flip over and shatter the case against the floor.

* * *

"Sammy? Sammy!" called Anthony. He'd only just arrived, ripping the door open after nearly breaking his key in the lock. He'd acted all calm over the phone, but in now his own fear had set in. If Robotnik had been willing to hire terrorists to kill Samus, he shuddered to think what the man, who'd definitely been frustrated by the failure, would do on his own.

Seeing no sign of Samus in the living room, he rushed down the stairs, passing through the shattered glass windows to her workshop. Searching around, Anthony's eyes fell on the single figure in the room. Samus was lying facedown on the floor, next to some more broken glass. She did not move, and she didn't even appear to be breathing. Praying he hadn't been too late, he sprinted over, grabbing Samus by the shoulders.

"Sammy, please don't be dead, please don't be dead..." he pleaded as he flipped her onto her back. He breathed a massive sigh of relief as he saw her eyes opening, and the Aurora Unit Reactor nestled in her chest.

"Think I may have to get back to you on that one..." she mumbled. Internally, Samus was just now feeling her strength return. The pain she'd been in was gone, but she still felt a bit dizzy in the head, and her vision was slightly blurred. Thankfully, that seemed to be fixing itself.

"What the hell did he do?" asked Anthony, concern still in his voice.

"He took the better reactor..." Samus breathed, inhaling deeply, "He reverse-engineered my suit-"

"I know, Olimar just told me."

Hearing that name, another horrible thought entered Samus' mind. "Where's Olimar?"

"She's with Agent McCloud. They're on their way to bring in Robotnik," said Anthony.

Samus' eyes filled with fear that was quickly replaced by grim determination.

"They'll need backup."

* * *

 **Aran International**

Olimar led Fox and the agents into the main reactor building, unlocking the door with his key card. He searched around the reactor, looking for sector 24, finally noticing a doorway leading to a staircase in the corner. The door, marked "Authorized Personnel Only," hadn't been touched in a long time, making it the ideal place to build a big super weapon. Olimar held his key card up to the scanner, only to be met with a negative buzzing sound.

"Damn," he swore, "Should've known he'd lock me out of here."

Fox reached inside his vest, pulling out a tiny circular device. It was made of grey metal, and had four green lights on the top of it. He clipped it to the lock on the door.

"Cool. What's that do? Does that thing like hack in the security code, or-?" asked Olimar, his inner technology nerd arising.

The device turned red. "You might wanna step back," said Fox.

Realization dawning on him, Olimar scurried away, pushing his fingers into his ears. Fox and the agents moved back too, not making any move to block out the sound. The device beeped, then exploded, blowing a fist-sized hole in the metal door.

Deep in the sector, Robotnik heard the sound of the bomb bursting. He'd just loaded the Aurora Unit Reactor into his new suit, and had finished the power up sequence. As he listened, footsteps and hushed voices began making their way to his location.

Robotnik sighed with irritation. He'd planned to just grab Olimar and through him in the river or something. Nice and easy. Of course, the man had insisted on making this as difficult as possible. However, a new thought dawned on him, and a maniacal grin spread across his face. He turned toward his creation.

Time for a test drive.

* * *

 **Samus' House**

Anthony wouldn't have been surprised if his jaw had literally hit the floor. He stood in Samus' garage, watching as mechanical limbs extended, attaching pieces of her red and gold armor. Tiny drills screwed bolts in, allowing the armor to compress around her body. Her helmet was attached to the armor via screws in the neck, and the face shielding visor sat on top of her head, ready to be dropped into position.

"That...is...awesome..." he breathed, trying desperately not to drool.

"I know, right?" said Samus, "Let's see Eggy come up with anything this badass."

She stomped over to the car she had crushed with the Mark II, shoving it out of the way with one foot. The thing was practically ruined by this point, but for once in her life, there was something more important at hand She stood directly under the hole in the building, which she hadn't gotten around to repairing. Turning to Anthony, she closed her helmet.

"Keep the jets off my butt tonight, would ya?" she said, her voice distorted and robotic. Both sets of booster in her suit fired, lifting Samus Aran up through the hole in her house. Accelerating, she zoomed through the roof, and soared towards her factory.

"That...not fair," whined Anthony. He turned around, noticing the silver Mark II sitting by itself off to the side. He stroked his whiskers, deep in thought, as he stared at the device, considering it. Eventually, he let out a "Nah," and grabbed Samus' keys. He hoped they'd accept the training exercise B. S. back at the base.

* * *

Samus was flying as fast as she dared. Ordinarily, she would've gone full speed, but if this was a normal mission, she'd have the benefit of the upgraded Aurora Unit Reactor. The original, while functional, couldn't power the suit as well. The booster failure of the Mark I had proved that. Even worse, the Mark III armor required more than twice the amount of energy to operate due to its complicated nature, and the crude reactor wasn't capable of putting out that much.

"Adam, what's our energy status?" she hesitantly asked.

"Lady, the suit's already been reduced to forty-eight percent power. The reactor we currently have equipped is insufficient for an extended deployment," responded the computerized voice.

Samus swallowed nervously. "Okay. Get in, get it over with, and get out. Easy." Even she didn't believe what she was saying.

* * *

 **Aran International**

The room housed underneath the reactor had few lights, most of which had been turned off. Fox was convinced that Robotnik was attempting to hide himself, possibly even to slip away behind the agents. The vulpine grinned to himself. It didn't matter, of course. He and the other agents had dealt with this kind of situation before, and it wouldn't stop them.

They had all drawn their pistols, and were proceeding down the metal staircase, into the main room. Fox's weapon, a Lylat Sky Laser Pistol, was also equipped with a night vision scope, negating Robotnik's hiding advantage even further. Noticing a tall metal shape in the corner, he approached it cautiously, before reaching it and realizing it was just an empty suit of armor.

"Looks like he didn't manage to finish it," he said to Olimar, who had followed him over. The suit had noticeable holes and loose cables, and the two arm cannons appeared to be cracked.

"That's not his suit..." said Olimar, paling, "That's Samus' old suit..."

And that was when they all heard the sound of heavy metallic pistons compressing. Turning around, Olimar, Fox, and the agents saw a giant, mechanical figure charging straight towards them.

* * *

Robotnik's massive armor no longer bore even a passing resemblance to Samus'. It stood nearly ten feet tall, with massive limbs extending outwards. The arms, a chrome silver, ended with pointed fingers, almost like claws. The body was red, with two yellow triangles, like the tips of a cape, below the head. Speaking of the head, it was the most disturbing part of the suit, as it resembled Robotnik's face. Its eyes looked like his shiny glasses, between which was his long, pointed nose. It even had his mustache, below which lay a row of flat, white teeth, in a permanent smile. Huge metallic pistons sat on the arms and legs, evidently the driving force behind the suit's movement. Over its heart area, a glowing blue circle sat, containing Samus' reactor.*

Fox shouted a command, raising his pistol to the mechanical monstrosity. However, before he or his colleagues could fire, Robotnik struck with one mighty fist, sending the vulpine flying across the room. The others managed to get a few shots off, sending small red laser beams towards Robotnik. Though the weapons left sizzling burn marks in the suit, they caused no impairing damage, and Robotnik swatted the other agents aside like flies.

Olimar, knowing the agents had no chance of combating the mad scientist, galloped to the exit, frantically climbing the stairs. Robotnik charged, reaching out for the man with his massive claw, but the suit slammed against the concrete surrounding the door, unable to fit through. Robotnik watched as Olimar scurried away like a mouse, grinding his teeth in fury.

Olimar ran out of the front of the factory as fast as his short legs could carry him. He shoved the entrance doors open, setting his eyes on the parking lot and his car. Before he could move away from the entrance, Robotnik's fist smashed through the asphalt from below, sending chunks of it flying in all directions. The rest of the suit climbed out of the hole, pushing away more chunks, and turned its gaze to Olimar. The small man tried to scream out, but he was so terrified, he couldn't even move his lips to make the sound.

Robotnik pointed his right arm at Olimar, as a panel in the limb slid back. A 23mm, six-barreled gatling gun emerged from within, pointed directly at Olimar.

"Such a waste," said Robotnik, his voiced sounding mechanical and cold through the suit.

However, his kill faced an unexpected interruption. That interruption took the form of a robotic voice calling "Eggman!" from above them. Robotnik spun around, looking to see Samus bearing down on him from the sky.

Swearing, he tried to raise his gun, but Samus rammed into him like a torpedo and bounced off, sending the larger enemy careening across the parking lot. Robotnik rolled head over heels, crushing several people's cars under his massive weight, before flipping and landing on his side. Taking his cue, Olimar ran for cover.

Samus landed on both feet right in front of Robotnik's massive armor. As her nemesis struggled to get to his feet, Samus pointed her arm cannon directly at him, readying her missile launcher. She fired, aiming for Robotnik's leg, but only hitting him in the chest area.

The resulting burst actually managed to lift Robotnik off his feet, sending him out of the parking lot entirely. He slammed into the street, narrowly missing the cars on the road. Those behind him panicked and swerved, trying not to crash into the metal giant. Robotnik shoved one particular car away with his arm.

"Out of breath already, Eggman?" called Samus, mockingly, "I was just getting started." Robotnik looked up as she flew over to him.

"Keep laughin', punk!" snarled Robotnik. He kicked out with one gigantic boot, narrowly missing Samus. However, the distraction gave him the opportunity to swing an ascending punch, uppercutting Samus and sending her flying down the street. She landed on her back, skidding along the paved road until she could stop herself with her arm.

Getting to her feet, Samus turned back to face her mortal enemy. Robotnik was advancing on her again, but this time he'd seized a Subaru Outback, and was holding it with both metal hands. He cackled as he raised the car over his head, preparing to overhead slam it into her . The people inside were clearly not having the best time.

"Hey, Sammy! I got you an early birthday present!" he shouted.

"Do you have to drag other people into this debate?" Samus whined, leveling her arm cannon at him, "This highway's crowded enough!"

"Well, you know what they say," retorted Robotnik, "The more the merrier!"**

Samus groaned, trying desperately to pretend that reference hadn't been made. "Adam," she ordered, "Raise Power Beam to maximum intensity!"

A yellow sphere of energy formed at the tip of her weapon, expanding rapidly as the beam charged to full power. Suddenly, her gun flashed, and a large yellow beam shot straight out of the device, slamming into Robotnik's chest. The mad scientist was launched flying backwards again, dropping the car he was holding in the process. It would've hit the ground and shattered if Samus hadn't rushed underneath to catch it.

Adam informed Samus that the blast had reduced her energy reserves to barely nineteen percent, but she ignored him. She was focused on placing the car down as smoothly as possible, while the passengers screamed like little girls. As the wheels touched the ground, the horn began blaring and the man driving floored the gas, sending the vehicle screaming off into the distance. Samus' relief quickly turned into disbelief as the car turned around and came flying back towards her, the driver still screaming.

"Get him, dad!" shouted one of the kids in the backseat.

Samus shouted with irritation as she dived to the side, narrowly avoiding the speeding car. It began to turn around for another ram, but Samus dashed over to it, waving her arms.

"Get out of here, you idiot!" she roared, her voice amplified by the built-in speakers, "He's gonna-"

She never got to finish that sentence, as a massive metal fist cut her off. Separated from Robotnik's suit, the arm punched Samus with full force, launching the armored woman across the street and into the side of a bus. The steel crumpled beneath her, and the windows shattered. The riders, thankfully uninjured, fled for their lives.

Dazed by the attack, Samus looked up to see the arm that had hit her flying backwards, where it reattached itself to Robotnik's armor. "Rocket punch," she realized, "Why didn't I think of that? That's awesome!"

Robotnik didn't give her time to keep fangirling over his weapons, as he stomped over to her. Samus ducked under another punch, but was caught by a downward slap, planting her face first into the ground.

"Get a load of this!" roared Robotnik, stomping on her back and grinding his metal foot against her. Samus felt the pain inside her armor, small gashes tearing into her skin from friction, as the mad scientist seized her with one massive claw.

"I formed this company with my own hands! My own sweat!" he shouted into her face. Pulling his arm back, Robotnik hurled Samus into the crippled bus, breaking it even further and tipping it onto its side.

Robotnik took a few steps back, taking aim at the bus. His back armor opened up, revealing a long, grey gun barrel with a yellow stripe around it. A tiny node on top of the device projected a red laser pointer directly as Samus.

"And you're not going to keep it from me!" continued Robotnik. The yellow stripe around his weapon flashed, and then he fired.

A long, narrow beam of energy blasted the bus with concussive force. Upon impact, it created massive explosion, spreading out in a dome pattern. Samus would have been obliterated, had she not activated her jets. Just before the beam hit, she managed to rocket upwards, sailing above the chaos. Once the explosion finished, she allowed herself to simply hover, staring down at Robotnik, who just laughed.

"I gotta give you credit, Sammy!" he chortled, "You actually used your brain on this one!"

Panels in the backs of his boots parted, revealing the jet thrusters concealed inside. The boosters fired, creating clouds of smoke on the ground, and lifting the massive suit of armor into the air. Due to his greater weight, Robotnik could not take off as quickly, but he was gaining speed, propelling himself towards Samus.

Sweat began to run down the back of Samus' neck. She'd hoped his armor wouldn't be a match for hers, due to her spending more time on development, and counted on his lack of skill piloting the device to give her an advantage. However, the firepower needed to destroy his suit drained her reactor far too quickly, and he packed a great deal more. Not to mention the fact that he'd smashed a number of dents into her suit, while most of attacks she had landed had done little. No matter how she looked at it, Samus could not win a head-to-head fight against Robotnik. Her only option was Plan B.

"Adam," she said, "Ascend to maximum altitude."

"Lady, the suit has only fifteen percent power remaining," exclaimed the A. I., "We won't be able to reach that height without-"

"It doesn't matter!" roared Samus, "We're not exactly winning this fight, if you haven't noticed!"

She turned around, increasing the intensity of her own thrusters, and skyrocketed into the night sky. Robotnik followed her, of course, sailing right behind her through the clouds. As he climbed higher and higher, moisture left on his suit from the clouds began to freeze, creating a layer of ice on top of the suit. He didn't notice, as he was too busy flying in for the kill.

Samus, meanwhile, wasn't doing that much better. Sure, the gold-titanium composition of her armor was doing its job, leaving her unfrozen. However, flying at her current speed was burning through her reactor's energy, and she didn't have much longer. Adam was quick to remind her of this fact, as her chest reactor flickered.

"Thirteen percent..." reported the A. I., "Ten percent...eight percent..."

"Shut it!" shouted Samus, "Just leave it on the HUD!"

She turned her head to look behind her. Robotnik was still coming after her, even with his armor iced over. Most likely, his larger suit could only be disrupted by a larger amount of ice. It didn't matter, though. She had him exactly where she wanted.

Samus suddenly spun around in mid-air. "Oh, silly me!" she exclaimed, "I forgot to tell you about the icing problem!"

"What icing-?!" Robotnik started to shout, before he looked at his armor. Unfortunately for him, that gave Samus the perfect opportunity to take him out.

Samus pointed her arm cannon directly at Robotnik, ordering Adam to configure it to the Ice Beam. Since her first mission, Samus had considered adding more weapons to the armor, and the idea for a subzero thermal weapon had hit her. She'd installed it only a few hours ago, but had not yet tested it. This was as good as any.***

The Ice Beam discharged from Samus' cannon, sending a wave of frigid energy over Robotnik's already freezing suit. Another layer of solid ice formed over him, and his suit's systems began to flicker. After a few seconds, Robotnik's jets deactivated, and the lights on his suit went out. He seemed to float, stationary in the air for about half a second, then began to plummet to the ground, disappearing beneath the clouds.

"Looks like you got...cold feet!" chuckled Samus, wishing she had a pair of sunglasses on her.****

Then she ran out of power.

"Oh, BISCUIIIIIIIIITS!" Samus yelped in surprise as she began to tumble out of the sky, her jets dead. Thankfully, she only fell a few feet before they began to fire again. The flames were weaker this time, though, and sparked before shutting out again.

"Power reserves at zero percent," said Adam, "Emergency batteries activated."

Samus struggled as she dropped, only to have the jets power up every few seconds. She knew that her emergency power could not fully ignite the thrusters, but perhaps it could still keep her from becoming a red and gold stain on the pavement. She dropped a few thousand feet more, attempting to direct herself to land on the roof of her factory. She stopped directly above the surface, hovering outside the perimeter of the roof, before the jets shut off again and she crashed into the metal railing around the roof. Samus grunted as she stood up. Thankfully, nothing seemed broken.

"Call Olimar," she ordered, leaning on the edge for support as Adam dialed the number. The man picked up immediately.

"Samus! You're okay?! Please tell me you're okay!" he shouted. He'd been hiding under his own car since the two armored colossi had run off. "What happened?! Where's Robotnik?! What-?!"

"I'm fine," Samus gasped, her exhaustion finally getting to her. She raised her visor, allowing fresh air to reach her lungs as she panted. "Eggman's done. I'm kinda dead in the water up here, but I'll-"

The massive thump behind her cut her off.

Samus spun around, visor closing as she did so, to face her worst nightmare. Robotnik, his suit intact, had landed behind her, his insane laughter echoing out into the night. Samus made a frenzied attempt to raise her missile launcher, but Robotnik's fist got there first. Samus Aran was punched across the roof, slamming into the edge of the perimeter.

"Cute trick, Sammy!" cackled Robotnik, clearly enjoying this.

Samus responded with a roar of fury, charging directly towards him, missile launcher primed. Her brain failed to process the fact that she was nearly depleted, and had no real chance. She was operating on pure instinct. Robotnik was hit by two more explosive projectiles before he could stop her, and they left large cracks in his armor. However, he managed to keep his balance this time, foiling Samus' efforts.

Even worse for the woman, Robotnik was able to reach forward with one hand, grabbing her entire arm cannon in his vice-like grip. Samus screamed, ripping her arm out of the weapon before Robotnik crushed it into scrap metal. Samus stumbled back, landing on her butt, her right forearm now bare.

"Power Beam offline. Missiles offline. Ice Beam offline," said Adam, urgency creeping into his robotic voice.

"Bombs!" yelled Samus, as Robotnik charged back at her, his hands outstretched.

Her launcher popped open, firing multiple explosive capsules directly at her opponent. The bombs had been intended as a signaling device, or to exploit damages in objects, rather than a weapon. As such, they did no real damage to Robotnik's armor, bouncing off with pinging sounds. However, they served their purpose, as the sparks caused his own HUD to briefly spark into static, blinding him. Robotnik shut his eyes while the system rebooted, before opening them again to find Samus had disappeared.

"Not bad, Sammy," he chuckled, "Not bad."

The woman in question was hiding behind the access door to the roof, peaking out from behind as Robotnik searched all around for her. So Plan B hadn't worked. That wouldn't be such a problem, except she hadn't made a Plan C. Her suit was nearly dead, she had no weapons left, and Robotnik was still going strong. Her reactor would take far too long to recharge, and even if it did, all she could do was fly away. She desperately searched for something to use, noticing the glass, circular skylight directly over the Aurora Unit Reactor. An idea formed in her mind, giving her one last option.

"Olimar?" she whispered, "You still there?"

"Sammy!" exclaimed the man on the other end, "What the hell is going on up there?"

"Eggman's got me backed into a corner," she answered, keeping her voice low, "Our only chance is to overload the reactor and blast everything on the roof."

"You need me to do that?" Olimar asked.

"Open up all the circuits, and bring the reactor up to maximum energy output," ordered Samus, "I'll try to stall for a minute. When I give the word, hit the master bypass button. Got it?"

"Yeah...yeah," said Olimar, scuttling back into the main building as fast as he dared. Once he was inside, he hurriedly set to his task, flipping open all of the circuits on the main reactor's control panel.

Meanwhile, Robotnik was still searching for Samus. He was somewhat amazed that he lost her, considering how small the roof was, and how she couldn't have flown away. Just as he stuck he head behind the roof access door, Samus leaped out from behind him, grabbing onto the back of his armor's giant head.

Robotnik began swerving back and forth, trying to throw her off, but Samus gripped with every ounce of physical strength she had, fueled by the adrenaline coursing through her system. Looking down into the neck area of the armor, she noticed several long cables connected to various areas of the suit.

"Ooh, what's this thing?" she exclaimed, before reaching down with her remaining armored hand. She seized the largest of the cables, tearing it out of the suit with one yank. "Whoops, my bad!"

With the wire disconnected, the lights in Robotnik's helmet went out, and he could no longer see. His HUD was still active, but his surroundings had turned black, meaning he could no longer lock onto anything.

With a roar of frustration, Robotnik reached behind him with both hands, grabbing Samus by the head. He heaved her over his head, tearing off her helmet in the process, and sending her falling onto the glass skylight over the reactor.

Olimar had finished preparing the reactor, and was now standing by the master button. He was just about to call Samus, and tell her to get away from the roof, when he heard the thump. He looked up to see his boss, face-down on the skylight, her helmet removed.

Robotnik's armor opened up, with the chest parting and the head raising itself back to reveal the man inside. Samus, dazed and exhausted, managed to prop herself up on her arms to stare at his eyes.

Robotnik threw his head back and cackled. "You know," he yelled, "A while back, I would've called you an adrenaline junkie for enjoying this thing!" He held her helmet in his robotic hand. "But now I see the thrill!" He crushed her helmet with ease, tossing it over to her, where it sparked and died.

Samus Aran glared back at him, defiance in her eyes. Despite the fact that she'd lost every defense she had, she was not giving in. She would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her beg for mercy. She climbed to her feet, gritting her teeth in fury.

"I really should thank you, Sammy!" the scientist continued, "You've made me the most powerful man on the planet! When you see Rodney, tell him thanks for bringing you into the world!"

With that, he reactivated his gatling gun, opening fire on Samus, who threw up her armored hand to shield her face. Thankfully, without his targeting computer, Robotnik was a lousy shot. Hiss bullets sprayed around Samus, but the only things they managed to hit were the glass windows at her feet. Samus fell through the skylight, only stopping herself by grabbing onto one of the grilles. Below, Olimar shrieked with fear as large shards of glass fell around him, bending over and cupping his hands behind his neck.

Robotnik laughed again. "If you stopped struggling, this would be over a lot faster," he chuckled. He raised his other arm, opening another hatch. Inside was a single missile, contained inside a black, metal casing. Samus recognized it as an Aran International heat seeking missile, and knew Robotnik wouldn't miss if he fired.

"Olimar!" she shouted, "Fire the reactor! Now!"

"It'll kill you!" Olimar shouted back, pleading rather than outright refusing.

"JUST DO IT!" screamed Samus.

Robotnik had heard their exchange, but paid no attention to it. Nothing they could do would stop him anyway. He'd was the strongest being alive, and completely invincible. He couldn't even prevent himself from laughing with cruel glee as he powered up the rocket.

Then Olimar pressed the button.

Blue bolts of electricity launched out of the reactor, shooting out in all directions as the energy overload took effect. Olimar rushed out of the main building to avoid injury. A massive blue beam fired straight out of the top, shooting high into the clouds and sparking like lightning. Samus was thrown from her position and magnetically glued to the skylight's frame. Robotnik was not so lucky, taking the brunt of the electricity and screaming in pain as it coursed through his entire body. The entire light show lasted only a few seconds, before the energy burst faded.

Once the reactor had ceased firing, Robotnik slumped forward. He was dead before his suit fell, crashing through the remains of the skylight and into the factory. He bounced around, metal clanging and falling apart, before landing on the reactor itself. Ivo Robotnik's corpse was consumed in a massive explosion, which tore apart the reactor and sent flames climbing high onto the roof.

On the roof, Samus Aran sat on her back, her eyes closed, and her armor dead. Then, a faint spark lit up her chest reactor.

* * *

 ***I think I described this pretty well, but if I didn't, just think of the Death Egg Robot.**

 ****I'm sorry, this reference was just begging to be made.**

 *****The idea I'm going for is that Samus invents more and more of her classic weapons as time goes on.**

 ******YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHH!**


	10. Chapter 10: The End of the Beginning

**Final chapter already? Dang, this story has flown by quickly. Well, here it is. I hope it stands as a solid conclusion.**

* * *

Chapter 10: The End of the Beginning

 **The Next Day, Conference Hall**

It was the suit and her personal reactor that saved her. Samus had been injured by the blast of electricity, but her armor and reactor had managed to take the brunt of the energy. Robotnik, lacking a reactor inside his body, had received a much larger portion of the charge than his nemesis. Not only that, but the massive surge had reignited her chest reactor, keeping her heart alive. After that, Samus had been rushed off the roof by some of Agent McCloud's colleagues, and taken back to her house to be patched up. Some of them had attempted to debrief her immediately, but Fox had shut them up, on account of Samus' recent services.

Now came the fun part; explaining this to the press. It wasn't like they could just sweep the incident under the rug, given that several dozen drivers on the highway had witnessed the battle, and the beam launching into the sky, and the explosion. The local police had a record number of calls come in from panicking citizens that night. Thankfully, Fox and his organization came through again on that front, putting together an irrefutable story that would keep people off their backs.

"Everybody's already heard our official statement on yesterday's events," said Anthony, "And we stand by it. A combat drone prototype, previously abandoned by Aran International, suddenly activated and became violent. The current cause is unknown, but under investigation. Damage to the Aurora Unit Reactor was sustained, but no one was seriously injured. One of miss Aran's-"

Olimar muted the T.V. to eliminate the distraction. Samus, Fox, and himself were currently gathered in the back room of the conference center, watching as Anthony laid the foundation for Samus' statement. Olimar himself was currently covering up Samus' various injuries with makeup, in order to make the cover story convincing. Samus, meanwhile, was reading the news about her late night escapade, which mostly consisted of speculation, although they'd somehow managed to get a photo of her.

"They're calling me Iron Woman?!" exclaimed Samus, "Who the hell do they think I am, Margaret frickin' Thatcher?!"

"Some of them are calling you Iron Man," said Olimar. Samus shot him a glare. "What? It's tough to tell in that suit!"

"It does have a nice ring to it," said Agent McCloud, holding an ice pack to his bruised face.

Samus thought for a moment. "I guess so," she answered, "Even if it is made of gold and titanium." She put down her paper, picking up the note cards with the crafted alibi Fox's associates had whipped up.

"Now remember," said Fox, "You were out for a late night ride on your private jet. Huge party, very expensive. We have a flight log and statements from multiple guests."

Samus eyed the presentation with skepticism. She knew these people were good enough to cover all the bases, but she still had a few questions. "Are you sure about this? It ignores Robotnik completely, and, well, the whole thing sounds way too convenient."

"Robotnik took a private cruise to relieve the pressure of work," said Fox, "His coworkers were concerned about him, so they convinced him to take some time off. Unfortunately, they crashed far off the coast. The wreckage won't be easy to find."

"You've done this before, haven't you?" asked Samus.

"You have no idea," responded the vulpine.

"What about the whole 'bodyguard' angle?" she continued, "Are people really gonna believe I can outfit my bodyguards with high-tech armor and haven't ever put it into production? And they'll want to know her name, when I hired her, if she'll endorse women's hair care products..."

Fox sighed. "It's simpler than it looks, Miss Aran. Just repeat it verbatim, and nobody who matters will question it." He looked at his watch. "I've gotta go early. I have another assignment." He got up to leave.

Olimar followed him to the door. "Thanks, Agent McCloud. We really are grateful not to have another PR nightmare on our hands. Especially now."

Fox smiled. "Just doing my job, Mr. Pik. We'll contact you again later. There's a lot more to discuss concerning Miss Aran."

"So we should check our caller I.D. for the State of..."

"SAFE, Mr. Pik," said Fox, "Look out for SAFE."

Olimar blinked. "That...really isn't the greatest name you could've come up with, you know."

"We need a better marketing department," agreed Fox, as he walked out the door.

Olimar turned back to Samus, grabbing her jacket. "Time to go to work," he said, slipping Samus' arms through it.

Samus herself was deep in thought. "It just seems like such a letdown. They'll all be disappointed it wasn't me in that suit. What if I just went out there, and I was like 'I am Iron Woman?'"

"You're not Iron Woman, you employ Iron Woman," said Olimar.

"Come on, don't tell me you buy that," whined Samus, "I'm obviously Iron Woman. I'm so obviously heroic, and brave, and selfless."

Olimar had to stuff his fist into his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

"Okay, fine," grunted Samus, "But, hypothetically, if I was Iron Woman, do you think I'd have a boyfriend who thought I was clinically insane, yet knew that I'd become the best person I could be? He couldn't bring himself to ditch me because I was just such a wonderful person, even though he was put in constant emotional turmoil? And that this inner conflict would just make him so obsessed with me he'd make his whole life revolve around me?"

Olimar just stared. "No."

"Worth it," said Samus. Then she remembered something about Olimar, and turned to face him once more. "I almost forgot to tell you, uh...sorry about that night at the party. I was gonna come back, but you know...duty calls."

Olimar chuckled. "What night? I spent that party drinking by myself, while you were at home dancing around to Black Veil Brides, with a bottle of vodka. I have the security tapes."

Samus' smile dropped. "That was months ago!" she complained.

"Not according to Adam."

Samus laughed again. "Okay, I guess I deserved that," she said, "Just don't post it on the internet again."

"No promises."

Samus chuckled to herself as she set off to the conference room.

"Good luck," said Olimar, as he walked away.

* * *

"Samus Aran herself will now give a statement," said Anthony, "No questions, please."

Samus walked up to the podium, note cards in hand, and turned to face the small crowd of reporters. She straightened her tie and scratched one of her back injuries, trying not to look too awkward. After all, nobody would believe a lie from somebody who stuttered their way through it, no matter how much evidence they produced. Although, this was unusual to begin with. Samus never wrote any of her speeches down before giving them. She didn't even start thinking about them until the drive to wherever she would be speaking.

"Thanks, Anthony," said Samus, shaking his hand, "Good guy. I've actually pre-written what I'm gonna say this time." She laughed. "I know, but today's not a monumental occasion, so let's just get this over with." She held up the first note, reading directly. "Now, there have been accusations of me being personally involved in the events of last night that resulted in-"

One of the assembled journalists suddenly cut her off, "Miss Aran, are you actually going to suggest that you now have a bodyguard equipped with technology that Aran International hasn't revealed, yet is capable of producing?"

Samus smiled. She'd predicted this line of questioning. "Well, after my experience Zebes, I felt there was a lack of proper security."

"And this person was able to arrive at exactly the optimal time?" continued the reporter, incredulity visible on his face.

"You know, if you're going to suggest that I'm either a superhero or a liar, you should just come out and say it," responded Samus bluntly.

The man had to cover his mouth in order to suppress his own laughter. The rest of the crowd didn't even try. "Miss Aran, I am from a respectable news source, not the National Inquirer."

Samus' smile fell a bit. She knew nobody would really believe she was an unselfish superhero, but that didn't mean she had to like it. Maybe she should work on her public image.

"Well, that's good," she said, "Because I'm not a superhero. I've got a lot of mistakes under my belt, many of which you people have personally witnessed. I'm just not a normally heroic person, and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous, and can be easily refuted." She meant what she said. Samus knew she wasn't exactly a role model. On the plus side, this would help keep her identity under wraps, because nobody would seriously suspect her of being Iron Woman.

Anthony leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Just keep to the cards, you're making yourself look suspicious."

"Okay, okay, geez," she whispered back. Samus held up the card, preparing to present her excuse to the eyes of the world.

"The true story of last night's events goes..." she began, but stopped. Every pair of eyes in the room stared at her as she looked at the card, not making a sound. After about a minute of this, Samus gathered up all of the cards in her hand, tossing them over the side.

"I am Iron Woman."

* * *

 **And there we go! I gotta say, I didn't expect this story would be over so soon. I guess that's what happens when I don't have a lot of better things to do. I'd like to thank everybody who read, followed, favorited, and commented on this story. Special thanks extended to gamer4, who gave me the idea in the first place, and was really supportive throughout the entire experience. Anyway, here is the cast list, for anybody who cares:**

 **Cast**

 **Samus Aran (Metroid) - Tony Stark/Iron Man**

 **Rodney Aran (Metroid Manga) - Howard Stark**

 **Anthony Higgs (Metroid: Other M) - James Rhodes**

 **Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik (Sonic the Hedgehog) - Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger**

 **Telma (Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess) - Happy Hogan**

 **Sparks Brushel (Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice) - Christine Everhart**

 **Captain Olimar (Pikmin) - Virginia "Pepper" Potts**

 **Adam Malkovich (A.I., Metroid Fusion) - Jarvis**

 **Old Bird (Metroid Manga) - Ho Yinsen**

 **Space Pirates (Metroid) - Ten Rings**

 **Aurora Units (Metroid Prime 3: Corruption) - Arc Reactor**

 **Weavel (Metroid Prime: Hunters) - Raza**

 **Fox McCloud (Starfox) - Agent Phil Coulson**

 **Death Egg Robot (Sonic the Hedgehog 2) - Iron Monger Armor**

 **That brings our story to a close. Thanks to all of you, and I'll see you later.**

 **The End**

 **...Oh, come on, you didn't really think I'd finish this without addressing the elephant in the room, did you?**

* * *

 **Samus' House, that Evening**

Samus pushed open her front door wearily. When she'd decided to tear her cover off, she really should have considered the ramifications. Honestly, it was like she'd proven herself to be the second coming, or something as monumental as that. She'd already gotten calls from comic book companies asking to adapt her story, not to mention the movie producers. She really felt bad for Olimar at the moment, having to ward off all those nutjobs.

However, she wasn't concerned. This wouldn't be a problem, and she'd definitely enjoy it before too long. At the moment, the biggest question in her mind was how cool it would be to fly in to give lectures and speeches. The merchandising rights alone would make a fortune, and she already had plenty of those in her pocket.

"Hey, Adam?" she called out, "Clear out my schedule for the next few weeks. Maybe a month, to be exact. Get ready to fill it up with new meetings that I'll miss. Oh, and open up a Mark IV folder."

There was no answer. Samus immediately tensed. Adam couldn't possibly be malfunctioning. She'd built his systems herself, and he'd never break down. The only other possible explanation was that some outside party had tampered with his systems. Looking around for a weapon, Samus' thoughts were interrupted by the sound of slow clapping.

Turning towards the sound, Samus noticed a figure in the living room, standing in front of the windows. She could make out no features, as the person was hidden in the shadows. The only thing she could tell was that it was a man, judging by the build.

"'I am Iron Woman?'" laughed the man. His voice was deep and scruffy, but not threatening. He didn't seem to be malevolent, but then again, neither had Robotnik. "You really blew that one out of the water, didn't you lady?"

"Who are you?" asked Samus, cautiously, "What do you want?"

The man turned around and started walking into the light. "The thing is, Aran," he continued, "This whole schtick you got goin' on is an even bigger deal than you think. You're not the first of your kind."

He finally stepped into the light. The man was dressed in simple black clothes, and they showed his developed muscles. His skin was wrinkled, and he looked like he was in his sixties at least, even if his voice sounded younger. He had a simple black eye patch over his left eye, and his grey hair was slick and flat on his skull. He had a thick mustache of the same grey color, and a dark bandanna tied around his forehead.

"David Snake, Director of SAFE," he introduced himself, "Call me Solid. I'd like to introduce you to Project Avengers."

* * *

 **Yep! Solid Snake is Nick Fury! I considered making him Captain America, going by the whole Super Soldier thing, but Snake's personality doesn't fit Steve very well. He's not quite at Nick Fury level, but he's pretty close.**

 **Announcements regarding the Marvelous Smashing Universe as a whole: I'll be starting up a deviantart account, in which I'll draw characters as they appear in this stories. I'll post a link on my profile as soon as I do, so keep an eye out.**

 **I'm gonna go back and revise some of the earlier chapters, because there are some things that bother me. Hopefully, if you come back to this story, it'll be better than it was to start.**

 **I'll be taking a short break to work on The Legend Reborn for a while, but only a little. I want to get out one more story in this franchise before I really focus on that again. Don't expect updates as often as there were on this, though, because I'm going back to college, and working, so I'll have less time. But I will be working on the next installment soon.**

 **Coming Soon: The Incredible Kong**

 **Yep. I went there. Donkey Kong will be the Hulk, but not Bruce Banner. You can probably guess who will take that role.**

 **Once again, thanks to all my readers and fans. See you later!**


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